Eating chocolate for breakfast may sound like a recipe for weight gain, but a new study out of Harvard and the University of Marcia, Spain, found that postmenopausal women who ate 100 grams of chocolate every morning burned 25% more fat, lowered their blood sugar by 4%, and reduced their waistlines by 2%, all while gaining no weight! This research builds on prior studies with male adults showing that flavanols can increase metabolism and fat oxidation.
“Our results show chocolate reduced energy intake, consistent with the observed reduction in hunger, appetite and the desire for sweets shown in previous studies,” noted study author Dr. Frank Scheer of Brigham and Women’s Hospital.
In fact, participants consumed about 300 fewer calories per day, excluding chocolate. This did not fully compensate for the extra 540 calories of chocolate yet “the volunteers did not gain weight despite an increased caloric intake.”
100 grams of chocolate is actually 2.5 FlavaBars! That’s a bit more than we’ve experimented with for breakfast ourselves. But we have noticed that consuming a FlavaBar early in the day both curbs our sweet tooth and helps fuel our performance.
FlavaBars for breakfast? What once seemed like a crazy indulgence may actually be a great way to get your day off to a terrific, rapid fat burning start!