Change in Breakfast Habits May Not Affect Weight Loss or Gain, Study Finds

A new study found that changing breakfast habits may not affect whether a person loses or gains weight.

While going on a diet, people are often advised not to skip breakfast as it is believed to be the most important meal of the day. But researchers of a new study have found that it doesn't have any effect on a person's weight loss or gain.

Previous studies about the proposed effect of breakfast on obesity (PEBO) stress on the importance of having breakfast. However, researchers from the University of Alabama at Birmingham said that the findings of these studies were influenced by factors that led to exaggerated beliefs and statements about the purported effects of breakfast consumption on obesity.

"We specifically found that research articles tended to overstate the strength of study designs and ignored evidence that did not support the proposed effect of breakfast on obesity," Andrew Brown, Ph.D., first author of the new study, said in a press release. "These distortions leave readers believing that the relationship between breakfast and obesity is more strongly established by science than the data actually support."

Brown and his team also found that researchers conducting such PEBO related studies were themselves not in possession of adequate knowledge of the topic as previously believed. True, their studies did find a relation between obesity and breakfast but they did not confirm whether there was a causal effect of skipping breakfast on obesity.

"Although we know that breakfast-skippers are more likely to be overweight or obese, we do not know if making breakfast-skippers eat breakfast would decrease their weight," Brown said. "Nor do we know if making breakfast-eaters stop eating breakfast would cause them to gain weight."

Authors of the study noted that if researchers make such claims, their studies should be backed by stronger evidence including randomizing people to eat or skip breakfast to help determine causal effects of breakfast on obesity.

"Uncertainty should not be confused with evidence of no benefit or harm, though," David Allison, Ph.D., associate dean for science in the UAB School of Public Health, said. "It just means that right now we don't know how changing breakfast-eating habits will influence obesity - eating versus skipping breakfast could help control weight, cause more weight gain or have no effect - and the effect may vary from person to person."