If a great breakfast still leaves you hungrier than a teenage football star after practice, look at what's in your glass. The difference between fruit juice and skim milk with your morning meal could mean the difference between buttoning your pants and having to buy new “skinny” ones.

In a small study of overweight people, those who drank about 20 ounces of skim milk with breakfast ate less at lunch than the folks who drank that much fruit juice with their morning meals. Milk drinkers also felt fuller and more satisfied right after they ate. What's the magic? The effect is most likely thanks to the whey and casein proteins that are in milk; they quell hunger better than the carbs in fruit drinks.

If 20 ounces of milk is more than you can stomach at that hour, or if you can't drink it because of lactose intolerance or other reasons, don't worry. There are more ways to introduce lean protein into your morning meal than there are days to do it. One favorite is to add an egg. Here's why you'll love it, too: In one study, people who ate two scrambled eggs and toast (make sure yours is whole wheat!) rather than the same number of calories in the form of a bagel and cream cheese dropped 65% more weight. Other easy, tasty, schedule-friendly ways to put protein in your mornings: Add silken tofu to your breakfast smoothie, or put yogurt under your berries or on top of your cereal.