Body weight is one of the most basic issues of human life. Medically speaking, not all overweight people are obese. Obesity is defined as weight that exceeds 15 percent of normal weight for height and body type. "Morbid" obesity exceeds 20 percent of optimum weight.

An obese or overweight person is at high risk for a number of serious health problems, including heart disease, high blood pressure, stroke, varicose veins, dementia, psychological stress, depression, osteoarthritis, high cholesterol, and diabetes.

The body mass index (BMI) is a widely used formula to calculate obesity because body fat is considered within the calculated result. BMI must be 24 or less in order for one's weight to be considered healthy. An individual with a BMI 25 to 29.9 is considered overweight. Obese individuals have a BMI greater than 30.

A study published in the journal Obesity investigated whether a high protein breakfast could curb a person’s appetite. The researchers enrolled 10 girls with an average age of 15 years to participate for three weeks and targeted breakfast-skipping teens. The volunteers either continued to skip breakfast or consumed 500-calorie breakfast meals containing cereal and milk (which contained normal quantities of protein) or higher protein meals such as Belgium waffles, syrup and yogurt. At the end of each week, the volunteers completed appetite and satiety questionnaires. Right before lunch, the volunteers completed a brain scan, using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), to identify brain activation responses.

The results were the group consuming a high protein breakfast experienced a greater change in appetite, satiety and reward-driven eating behavior compared to the normal protein breakfast group and the group that skipped breakfast. In conclusion, the researchers stated

“Incorporating a healthy breakfast containing protein-rich foods can be a simple strategy for people to stay satisfied longer, and therefore, be less prone to snacking. These findings suggest that a protein-rich breakfast might be an effective strategy to improve appetite control and prevent overeating in young people."

Article and research sources courtesy of, found here.

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