Eating a big breakfast with lots of carbs and protein may help people lose weight and keep it off, researchers said.

The plan includes a low-carb, low-calorie diet for the rest of the day.

Dr. Daniela Jakubowicz of the Hospital de Clinicas in Venezuela said an overall low-carb diet may cause a quick weight loss, but pounds come back quickly, as well. Only 5 percent of carb-restrictive diets are successful after two years, she said.

Jakubowicz and a team at Virginia Commonwealth University put 94 obese, inactive women on low-fat, low-calorie diets, but they differed in how carbs were distributed.

For four months, researchers looked for weight loss. The strict low-carb diet caused an average weight loss of 28 pounds; the big-breakfast version cut 23 pounds.

However, after eight months, the strict dieters had regained 18 pounds. The big-breakfast eaters continued to drop weight, losing another 16.5 pounds.

All told, those on the new diet lost more than 21 percent of their body weight, compared with just 4.5 percent for the low-carb group.

Women who ate a big breakfast reported feeling less hungry, especially before lunch and had fewer cravings for carbs than the other women did.

Jakubowicz said the big-breakfast diet works because it controls appetite and cravings for sweets and starches. It also is healthier, she said, because it allows people to eat more fruit and therefore get enough fiber and vitamins.

The big-breakfast diet includes 1,240 calories a day.