The Breakfast Mistake Even Smart Women Make

You count on an A.M. meal to help keep your weight down and your energy up

But time is tight, so you gobble down a cereal bar. It's better than nothing, right? Just barely, says Kathleen Melanson, Ph.D., R.D., a professor of nutrition at the University of Rhode Island in Kingston, who adds: "Rushing through breakfast can set you up for overeating all day long." In a recent study, she asked women to guzzle a protein shake first thing in the morning and, on a different day, to sip it slowly from a straw. When women lingered over the shake, they ate 40 fewer calories on average at lunch (a 4- pound-per-year savings) than when they finished it quickly. "The women may have received more satiety signals from the brain when they took their time with the drink," she explains. "And that made them less hungry at lunch." The lesson: Carve out at least 15 minutes for breakfast at home, or stash cereal and fruit at work and eat there.