You aren't skipping on breakfast are you? If you do that it can slow down your metabolic processes and so you may find it harder to burn those extra calories since your body will be less efficient. Also eating less protein should not be considered unless you are eating it in extreme quantities since the body uses up more energy digesting proteins when compared to fats and carbs. Drinking more water too will burn more calories and may help with your dizzy spells.
This is certainly the accepted CW. Certainly, most doctors and dieticians that I've had any face to face experience with have said just that. The following studies and the interpretation from leangains.com have given me some pause from accepting this view wholesale (from
http://www.leangains.com/search/label/Diet Mythology):
"...
Study #2
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/1550038
The role of breakfast in the treatment of obesity: a randomized clinical trial.
Results: In this well-designed 12-week study, participants were habitual breakfast eaters and non-breakfast eaters, who were assigned a breakfast or non-breakfast diet. Interestingly, fat loss was greatest among ex-breakfast eaters who followed the breakfast skipping diet. This group ate lunch and supper and consumed 2/3 of their daily calorie intake at supper (6 PM or later).
In contrast, baseline breakfast skippers who were put on a breakfast diet got more favorable results than those who continued the breakfast skipping pattern. The implication of these seemingly paradoxical findings might be related to impulse-control; dysregulated eating habits, such as breakfast skipping, tend to go hand in hand with uninhibited and impulsive eating. Eating breakfast might therefore be of benefit for those with poor self-control, such as the ex-breakfast skippers in this study.
On the other hand, more favorable results were had with breakfast skipping amongst the "controlled" eaters (habitual breakfast eaters). This group would be more representative of us, meaning people who are used to count calories, follow an organized diet and not just mindlessly eat whatever is in front of us.
There were no differences between groups in regards to the weight loss composition (75% fat / 25% lean mass) or resting metabolic rate.
Interesting tidbit: The breakfast eating groups showed a slight increase in depression-induced eating whereas the subjects in the no-breakfast group showed a slight decrease. Furthermore, subjects in the breakfast group saw the diet as more restrictive than the no-breakfast group. Quote:
...the larger meal size of the no-breakfast group caused less disruption of the meal patterns and social life than did the smaller meal sizes in the breakfast condition.
Perhaps it was these favorable effects on their social life that also resulted in the no-breakfast groups showing superior compliance rates at the follow-up 6 months later (81% vs 60%).
Study #3
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/9040548
Weight loss is greater with consumption of large morning meals and fat-free mass is preserved with large evening meals in women on a controlled weight reduction regimen.
Results: In this study participants alternated between two 6-week phases of the same diet of which 70% of the daily caloric intake was eaten in the morning or evening respectively. Larger morning meals caused greater weight loss compared to evening meals, but the extra weight lost was in the form of muscle mass. Overall, the larger evening meals preserved muscle mass better and resulted in a greater loss in body fat percentage.
The greater weight loss associated with the AM [morning] pattern that we found in our study was due primarily to loss of fat-free mass, which averaged about 1 kg more for the AM pattern than for the PM pattern.
An interesting study with a few glaring limitations, mainly the small sample size (10 participants) and the way body composition was measured (total body electrical conductivity, which is somewhat similar to BIA discussed in "Intermittent Fasting for Weight Loss Preserves Muscle Mass?").
This study also included weight training 3x/week, which was a serious confounder in this specific study design. Given that the PM-group consumed a greater percentage of their calorie intake post-workout, this study might simply show the benefits of nutrient timing, and not bigger PM meals per se.
AM-Setup:
Breakfast, 8-8.30 AM: 35% of total daily calorie intake
Weight training (circuit style), 9-9.30 AM
Lunch, 11-12 PM: 35%
Dinner, 4.30-5 PM: 15%
Evening snack, 8-8.30 PM: 15%
PM-Setup:
Breakfast, 8-8.30 AM: 15% of total daily calorie intake
Weight training (circuit style), 9-9.30 AM
Lunch, 11-12 PM: 15%
Dinner, 4.30-5 PM: 35%
Evening snack, 8-8.30 PM: 35%
As you can see, the PM-setup is quite similar to the "One Pre-Workout Meal" protocol of Leangains.
Finally, the researchers speculate on the muscle sparing effects of the PM-pattern:
Certain endocrine influences might have contributed to the difference in fat-free mass change between the meal patterns. Growth hormone secretion displays an endogenous rhythm that is partially linked with the sleep cycle. At night pulsatile secretion increases after 1-2 hours of sleep, with maximal secretion occurring during stages 3 and 4 of sleep.
Although the effect of prolonged changes in dietary intake or meal patterns on growth hormone release are not known, it is conceivable that a greater flux of dietary amino acids with the large evening meals, coupled with the known protein anabolic effect of growth hormone, might combine to favor deposition of lean tissue."
