The Obesity Code: Unlocking the Secrets of Weight Loss (Why Intermittent Fasting Is the Key to Controlling Your Weight)

by Jason Fung

THE MAJORITY OF Americans identify breakfast as the most important meal of the day. Eating a hearty breakfast is considered a cornerstone of a healthy diet. Skipping it, we are told, will make us ravenously hungry and prone to overeat for the rest of the day. Although we think it’s a universal truth, it’s really only a North American custom. Many people in France (a famously skinny nation) drink coffee in the morning and skip breakfast. The French term for breakfast, petit déjeuner (little lunch) implicitly acknowledges that this meal should be kept small. The National Weight Control Registry was established in 1994 and monitors people who have maintained a weight loss of 30 pounds (14 kilograms) for more than one year. The majority (78 percent) of the National Weight Control Registry participants eat breakfast.7 This, we are told, is proof that eating breakfast aids weight loss. But what percentage of those who did not lose weight ate breakfast? Without knowing, it’s impossible to draw any firm conclusions. What if 78 percent of those that did not lose weight also ate breakfast? This data is not available. Furthermore, the National Weight Control Registry itself is a highly self-selected population8 and not representative of the general population. For example, 77 percent of registrants are women, 82 percent are college educated and 95 percent are Caucasian. Furthermore, an association (for instance, between weight loss and eating breakfast) does not mean causality. A 201...