ClinicalTrials.gg
CompletedNCT04476693Updated Mar 1, 2023

Metabolic Responses to Breakfast in Adolescent Girls

An interventional study of Breakfast consumption and Breakfast Omission in Postprandial Hyperglycemia, sponsored by University of Bedfordshire. Completed at 1 site in United Kingdom. Open to female participants aged 11 Years to 14 Years, including healthy volunteers. Per ClinicalTrials.gov, last updated 2023-03-01.

Sponsored by University of Bedfordshire · Not applicable, Interventional, and Basic science

From the registry’s dates

  • Registered 1 year 9 months after the study started (first participant enrolled Oct 2018, registered Jul 2020).
Phase
Not applicable
Study type
Interventional
Enrollment
18
Allocation
Randomized
Ages
11 Years to 14 Years
Sex
Female
01

Study summary

Breakfast consumption (BC) is frequently associated with a healthy lifestyle, healthy body weight and favourable cardiometabolic health. Research from studies in adults suggests that breakfast skipping causes elevated plasma glucose and insulin concentrations after lunch. However, there is currently no evidence to suggest a similar metabolic response in adolescent girls, a population that frequently skips breakfast. The primary purpose of this study is to examine the effects of BC versus breakfast omission (BO) on metabolic responses after lunch in healthy adolescent girls.

Read the detailed description

Breakfast consumption (BC) is habitually associated with a healthy lifestyle (e.g., diet and physical activity), reduced adiposity and favourable cardiometabolic health profiles in children, adolescents and adults. Experimental research in adults has shown that breakfast consumption reduces the glycaemic and insulinemic response to lunch when compared with breakfast omission; this has been termed 'the second meal effect'. Further, breakfast consumption may improve exercise performance and increase free-living physical activity energy expenditure in adults. Understanding the postprandial metabolic responses to BC and breakfast omission (BO) in adolescent girls is particularly important, as this population frequently skips breakfast and have low physical activity levels. Yet, adolescent girls may respond differently to adults due to their distinct metabolic profiles, and past research has not targeted this population. The primary aim of this research is to examine whether BC versus BO affects postprandial glycaemic and insulinemic responses to lunch in adolescent girls. Secondly, it aims to examine the lipaemic and substrate oxidation responses during rest, substrate oxidation during an exercise bout performed later in the day, and physical activity enjoyment during the exercise bout.

02

Conditions studied

  • Postprandial Hyperglycemia

Keywords

  • cardiovascular disease
  • diabetes
03

In context

Hyperglycemia

800 studies on the registry are indexed under Hyperglycemia; 115 are open to participants now.

This study's enrollment of 18 is below the median of 50 across 620 interventional studies indexed under Hyperglycemia.

Browse Hyperglycemia studies →

Lead sponsor

University of Bedfordshire is the lead sponsor of 12 studies on the registry; 1 is open to participants now.

Counted across the registry records on this site, refreshed daily.

04

Who can participate

Ages eligible
11 Years to 14 Years
Sexes eligible
Female
Accepts healthy volunteers
Yes

Go through the criteria one by one — yes, no or not sure — and take the list to your doctor or the study team. Kept in this browser only.

Inclusion criteria

  1. Aged 11 to 14 years old
  2. Female
  3. Healthy weight centile (between the 3rd and 91st centile - Cole et al 2000)

Exclusion criteria

Exclusion Criteria:

  1. Allergies to the breakfast and lunch ingredients
  2. Fitted with a pacemaker
  3. Unable to walk
  4. Health related issues that could be affected by participation in the study (e.g., uncontrolled exercise-induced asthma, diabetes, epilepsy)
Terms in these criteria, in plain language(1)

Underlined terms in the criteria open these too. Explained by clinicaltrials.gg, not part of the registry record. The study team decides who can take part.

BMI (body mass index)

Weight in kilograms divided by height in metres squared. Example: 70 kg and 1.75 m gives 70 ÷ (1.75 × 1.75) ≈ 22.9.

What counts as overweight or obesity differs between countries (some use lower cut-offs), so go by the range the study states.

05

Study design

Phase
Not applicable
Primary purpose
Basic science
Allocation
Randomized
Intervention model
Crossover assignment
Masking
None (open label)
Enrollment
18 participants (actual)

Study arms

  • Experimental
    Breakfast Consumption (BC)

    The consumption of a standardised breakfast followed by a standardised lunch 3-h after the last mouthful of breakfast meal. All the ingredients of the breakfast and lunch provided will be weighed, with the portion sizes calculated based on individual resting metabolic rate (RMR). The participants were instructed to consume the meals provided within 15 min. A minimum of seven days washout period will be provided to avoid carry-over effects between conditions. The standardised lunch will consist of white bread without crust (Tesco), margarine 'Butter Me Up Spread' (Tesco), strawberry jam (Tesco), salted crisps (Walkers) and sparkling glucose drink (Lucozade Energy Original). This carbohydrate-rich high glycameic index lunch was designed to trigger quick and exaggerated glucose and insulin response.

    Other: Breakfast consumption

  • Experimental
    Breakfast omission (BO)

    Participant will consume water, the individual volume of which was calculated based on the liquid content of the breakfast. A standardised lunch will be consumed 3-h after the last mouthful of water. All the ingredients of the breakfast and lunch provided were weighed, with the portion sizes calculated based on individual resting metabolic rate (RMR). The participants were instructed to consume the meals provided within 15 min. A minimum of seven days washout period was provided to avoid carry-over effects between conditions. The standardised lunch consists of white bread without crust (Tesco), margarine 'Butter Me Up Spread' (Tesco), strawberry jam (Tesco), salted crisps (Walkers) and sparkling glucose drink (Lucozade Energy Original). This carbohydrate-rich high glycameic index lunch was designed to trigger quick and exaggerated glucose and insulin response.

    Other: Breakfast Omission

Interventions

  • OtherBreakfast consumption

    Consumption of breakfast: The breakfast provided was designed based on the "characteristics of an ideal breakfast" outlined in Giovannini et al., (2008). The breakfast provided in the present study will include the following: all-bran cereals (Kellogg's), semi-skimmed milk (Tesco), Royal Gala Apple (Tesco) and Orange Juice from Concentrate (Tesco) containing the amount of carbohydrates usually consumed at breakfast in the UK (Reeves et al., 2013). The portion for each participant will contain 0.06 g of carbohydrate per kcal of measured RMR. As the portion size (20% of daily calorie intake) will be calculated based on individual RMR , no leftovers will be allowed.

  • OtherBreakfast Omission

    Omission of breakfast. Participants will consume water within 15 min, the individual volume of which will be calculated based on the liquid content of the breakfast \[milk (ml)+ orange juice (ml)\].

06

What researchers measure

Primary outcomes

  1. Post-lunch area under the curve (AUC) for glucose.

    Net incremental AUC and total AUC for 2-hour period post lunch in each condition will be calculated for plasma glucose. Five finger prick blood samples will be taken at 15, 30, 60, 90 and 120 minutes post lunch.

    Time frame: 2 hours

  2. Total trial area under the curve (AUC) for glucose.

    Net incremental AUC and total AUC for the 5-hour entire trial period in each condition will be calculated for plasma glucose. Finger prick blood samples will be taken at at 0 (baseline), 30, 60, 120 and 180 min after breakfast consumption or omission and at 15, 30, 60, 90 and 120 minutes after lunch consumption.

    Time frame: 5 hours

  3. Post-lunch area under the curve (AUC) for insulin.

    Net incremental AUC and totral AUC for 2-hour period post lunch in each condition will be calculated for plasma insulin. Five finger prick blood samples will be taken at 15, 30, 60, 90 and 120 minutes post lunch.

    Time frame: 2 hours

  4. Total trial area under the curve (AUC) for insulin.

    Net incremental AUC and total AUC for the 5-hour entire trial period in each condition will be calculated for plasma insulin. Finger prick blood samples will be taken at at 0 (baseline), 30, 60, 120 and 180 min after breakfast consumption or omission and at 15, 30, 60, 90 and 120 minutes after lunch consumption.

    Time frame: 5 hours

Secondary outcomes

  1. Post-lunch resting substrate oxidation

    Substrate oxidation (fat and carbohydrate) rates will be estimated using indirect calorimetry from expired air samples at four time points following lunch (30, 60, 90 and 120 minutes).

    Time frame: 2 hours

  2. Total trial resting substrate oxidation.

    Substrate oxidation (fat and carbohydrate) rates will be estimated using indirect calorimetry from expired air samples at baseline and at 4 time points after breakfast (30, 60, 120 and 180 minutes) and 4 time points following lunch (30, 60, 90 and 120 minutes).

    Time frame: 5 hours

  3. Maximum fat oxidation rate during exercise

    An incremental 7-stage cycling test will be performed 2 hours after lunch for the determination of maximum fat oxidation. Each stage will last 4 minutes in duration, where participants will keep a steady pedalling rate of 60 revolutions per minute. The intensity for each stage was calculated based on the percentage (0%, 20%, 30%, 40%, 50%, 60%, 70%) of the theoretical maximal aerobic power. Fat oxidation rates will be estimated during the final minute of each stage using indirect calorimetry.

    Time frame: During exercise (approximately 30 minutes)

  4. Fatmax during exercise

    An incremental 7-stage cycling test will be performed 2 hours after lunch for the determination of maximum fat oxidation. Each stage will last 4 minutes in duration, where participants will keep a steady pedalling rate of 60 revolutions per minute. The intensity for each stage was calculated based on the percentage (0%, 20%, 30%, 40%, 50%, 60%, 70%) of the theoretical maximal aerobic power. Fat oxidation rates will be estimated during the final minute of each stage using indirect calorimetry. The intensity at which maximum fat oxidation occurs will be defined as Fatmax.

    Time frame: During exercise (approximately 30 minutes)

  5. Physical activity enjoyment

    Physical activity enjoyment measured using Physical Activity Enjoyment Scale (PACES) during the Fatmax incremental exercise test. The scale is composed of 16 statements (9 positive and 7 negative) which begin with the phrase "When I am physically active...". The participants must answer by giving an answer from 1 "disagree a lot" to 5 "agree a lot" to each statement. The average score of the positive statements is calculated to be used in the analysis.

    Time frame: Following exercise (approximately 5-10 minutes post)

  6. Post-lunch area under the curve (AUC) for triaclyglycerol

    Net incremental AUC and total AUC for the 2-hour period post lunch in each condition will be calculated for plasma triaclyglycerol. Five finger prick blood samples will be taken at 15, 30, 60, 90 and 120 minutes post lunch.

    Time frame: 2 hour

  7. Total trial area under the curve (AUC) for triaclyglycerol

    Net incremental AUC and total AUC for the 5-hour entire trial period in each condition will be calculated for plasma triacylglycerol. Finger prick blood samples will be taken at at 0 (baseline), 30, 60, 120 and 180 min after breakfast consumption or omission and at 15, 30, 60, 90 and 120 minutes after lunch consumption.

    Time frame: 5 hours

07

Study locations

1 site
  • University of Bedfordshire
    Bedford, Bedfordshire MK41 9EA, United Kingdom
08

References and documents

Individual participant data

Plan to share: No

No publications or documents are linked to this record.

09

Updates

Tracking since Sep 25, 2026
No changes since tracking began. The registry record was last updated on Mar 1, 2023, before this site started recording changes on Sep 25, 2026. Its history is on ClinicalTrials.gov ↗
10

Registry details

Key details

Study ID
NCT04476693
Lead sponsor
University of Bedfordshire
Collaborators
British Nutrition Foundation
Responsible party
Dr Rebecca Jones (Lecturer in Exercise Physiology, University of Bedfordshire) — Principal investigator
First posted
Jul 20, 2020
Start date
Oct 1, 2018
Primary completion
Jul 1, 2020
Completion
Jul 1, 2020
Last update
Mar 1, 2023

Oversight

Data monitoring committee
No
FDA-regulated drug
No
FDA-regulated device
No
View the source record on ClinicalTrials.gov ↗

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