Skipping breakfast makes you eat more at lunch, but not enough to compensate for the breakfast you skipped.Note: I received a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. Higher-quality studies show that it makes no difference whether people eat or skip breakfast. Skipping breakfast had no visible effects ( 5, 12, 13). These results are supported by other studies on the effects of breakfast habits on weight loss. It simply didn’t matter whether people ate or skipped breakfast. This was a 4-month long study that compared recommendations to eat or skip breakfast in 309 overweight/obese men and women ( 12).Īfter 4 months, there was no difference in weight between groups. Interestingly, the eat/skip breakfast dilemma was recently tested in a high-quality randomized controlled trial. This seems logical, because you are effectively removing an entire meal from your diet each day. In fact, some studies have even shown that skipping breakfast may reduce overall calorie intake by up to 400 calories per day ( 9, 10, 11). It is true that skipping breakfast causes people to be more hungry and eat more at lunch, but this is not enough to overcompensate for the breakfast that was skipped.

This seems to make sense, but isn’t supported by the evidence. This may seem paradoxical, because how can not eating make you gain more weight? Well, some claim that skipping breakfast causes you to become very hungry so that you overeat later in the day. This may be due to the fact that breakfast eaters have other healthy lifestyle habits.Īs mentioned above, people who skip breakfast tend to weigh more than people who eat breakfast. Bottom Line:īreakfast eaters tend to be healthier and leaner than breakfast skippers.

In fact, higher quality studies called randomized controlled trials suggest that it doesn’t really matter whether you eat or skip breakfast.

It may not have anything to do with the breakfast itself. Perhaps these are the reasons that breakfast eaters are healthier, on average. On the other hand, people who skip breakfast tend to smoke more, drink more alcohol and exercise less ( 7). These studies show that people who eat breakfast are more likely to be healthier, but they can not prove that the breakfast itself caused it.Ĭhances are that breakfast eaters have other healthy lifestyle habits that can explain this.įor example, people who eat breakfast also tend to eat a healthier diet, with more fiber and micronutrients ( 5, 6). However, these studies are so-called observational studies, which can not demonstrate causation. It’s true, many studies show that breakfast eaters tend to be healthier.įor example, they are less likely to be overweight/obese, and have a lower risk of several chronic diseases ( 2, 3, 4).įor this reason, many experts have claimed that breakfast must be good for you.

Breakfast is Severed by TyCobbsTeeth