NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Looking for ways to limit middle-age weight gain? Eat more at breakfast and less later in the day, researchers suggest.

"Shifting a greater proportion of a day's total calorie intake to breakfast time is potentially beneficial for lower weight gain over time among middle-aged men and women," Dr. Nita Forouhi told Reuters Health.

Forouhi, of the Institute of Metabolic Science, Addenbrooke's Hospital, in Cambridge, UK, and colleagues studied 6,764 men and women, 40 to 75 years old, who were assessed at the start of the study and an average of 3.7 years later.

At the outset, the investigators gathered 7-day food diaries to measure overall diet and breakfast eating habits, and collected information on lifestyle, such as physical activity and smoking, the team reports in the American Journal of Epidemiology.

"Although everyone gained some weight over time, people who ate a greater proportion of their calories at breakfast time gained less weight," Forouhi noted.

"People who ate a greater proportion (22 to 50 percent) of their total daily calories at breakfast time gained 0.79 kilograms of weight over time," Forouhi said. By contrast, those who consumed no more than 11 percent of their total calories at breakfast had a greater weight gain of 1.23 kilograms.

Each 10 percent increase in calorie consumption at breakfast, the investigators note, equated to about 210 to 320 grams less weight gain on average over 4 years.

Moreover, the association between lower weight gain over time and greater calorie intake at breakfast remained when the researchers factored in the effects of a healthier lifestyle, baseline weight, total calorie intake, and individual demographics.

The investigators conclude that redistributing a greater proportion of daily energy intake to breakfast, and a smaller proportion over the rest of the day, may help reduce weight gain in middle-aged adults over time.