Trial reportThe American journal of clinical nutrition2016
The causal role of breakfast in energy balance and health: a randomized controlled trial in obese adults.
Trial report in The American journal of clinical nutrition, 2016. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. It is linked to 2 registered trials, which are not on this map. Cited by 79 papers, 6 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Isolating and Exploiting the Mechanisms That Link Breakfast and Human Health - Intervention
Impact of Breakfast Consumption Timing on Postprandial Glycaemia and Insulinaemia in Adolescent Girls Who Habitually Skip Breakfast
Who cites it
79 citing papers in PubMed, 6 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 255 citations in OpenAlex.
- Mucosal Genes Encoding Clock, Inflammation and Their Mutual Regulators Are Disrupted in Pediatric Patients with Active Ulcerative Colitis.International journal of molecular sciences · 2024Pooled it
- Health effects of the time-restricted eating in adults with obesity: A systematic review and meta-analysis.Frontiers in nutrition · 2023Pooled it
- Effect of skipping breakfast on cardiovascular risk factors: a grade-assessed systematic review and meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials and prospective cohort studies.Frontiers in endocrinology · 2023Pooled it
- A systematic review of interventions to increase breakfast consumption: a socio-cognitive perspective.Public health nutrition · 2021Pooled it
- Breakfast Skipping, Body Composition, and Cardiometabolic Risk: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis of Randomized Trials.Obesity (Silver Spring, Md.) · 2020Pooled it
- Effect of breakfast on weight and energy intake: systematic review and meta-analysis of randomised controlled trials.BMJ (Clinical research ed.) · 2019Pooled it
- Early time-restricted eating compared with daily caloric restriction: A randomized trial in adults with obesity.Obesity (Silver Spring, Md.) · 2022Trial
- Randomized controlled trial for time-restricted eating in healthy volunteers without obesity.Nature communications · 2022Trial
- Trial
- An exploratory investigation of the impact of 'fast' and 'feed' days during intermittent energy restriction on free-living energy balance behaviours and subjective states in women with overweight/obesity.European journal of clinical nutrition · 2021Trial
- Lipid Metabolism Links Nutrient-Exercise Timing to Insulin Sensitivity in Men Classified as Overweight or Obese.The Journal of clinical endocrinology and metabolism · 2020Trial
- Skipping Breakfast Before Exercise Creates a More Negative 24-hour Energy Balance: A Randomized Controlled Trial in Healthy Physically Active Young Men.The Journal of nutrition · 2019Trial
- Molecular adaptations of adipose tissue to 6 weeks of morning fasting vs. daily breakfast consumption in lean and obese adults.The Journal of physiology · 2018Trial
- Postprandial Metabolism and Appetite Do Not Differ between Lean Adults that Eat Breakfast or Morning Fast for 6 Weeks.The Journal of nutrition · 2018Trial
- Breakfast Macronutrient Composition Influences Thermic Effect of Feeding and Fat Oxidation in Young Women Who Habitually Skip Breakfast.Nutrients · 2016Trial
- Article
- The association of time-restricted eating and indices of organ-specific aging in relation to metabolic health and obesity.NPJ science of food · 2026Article
- Beyond calories: the effect of meal patterns on obesity risk in the IRanian National Obesity Registry.Journal of cardiovascular and thoracic research · 2026Article
- What Drives Consumers' Breakfast Food Choices? Case Study in South Africa-A Multiethnic Middle-Income Country.Foods (Basel, Switzerland) · 2025Article
- Breakfast Skipping Increases the Risk of Coronary Heart Disease and Myocardial Infarction: Evidence From the Mendelian Randomization Study.Food science & nutrition · 2025Article
19 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
6 authors at 3 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
Abstract
backgroundThe causal nature of associations between breakfast and health remain unclear in obese individuals.
objectiveWe sought to conduct a randomized controlled trial to examine causal links between breakfast habits and components of energy balance in free-living obese humans.
designThe Bath Breakfast Project is a randomized controlled trial with repeated measures at baseline and follow-up among a cohort in South West England aged 21-60 y with dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry-derived fat mass indexes of ≥13 kg/m(2) for women (n = 15) and ≥9 kg/m(2) for men (n = 8). Components of energy balance (resting metabolic rate, physical activity thermogenesis, diet-induced thermogenesis, and energy intake) were measured under free-living conditions with random allocation to daily breakfast (≥700 kcal before 1100) or extended fasting (0 kcal until 1200) for 6 wk, with baseline and follow-up measures of health markers (e.g., hematology/adipose biopsies).
resultsBreakfast resulted in greater physical activity thermogenesis during the morning than when fasting during that period (difference: 188 kcal/d; 95% CI: 40, 335) but without any consistent effect on 24-h physical activity thermogenesis (difference: 272 kcal/d; 95% CI: -254, 798). Energy intake was not significantly greater with breakfast than fasting (difference: 338 kcal/d; 95% CI: -313, 988). Body mass increased across both groups over time but with no treatment effects on body composition or any change in resting metabolic rate (stable within 8 kcal/d). Metabolic/cardiovascular health also did not respond to treatments, except for a reduced insulinemic response to an oral-glucose-tolerance test over time with daily breakfast relative to an increase with daily fasting (P = 0.05).
conclusionsIn obese adults, daily breakfast leads to greater physical activity during the morning, whereas morning fasting results in partial dietary compensation (i.e., greater energy intake) later in the day. There were no differences between groups in weight change and most health outcomes, but insulin sensitivity increased with breakfast relative to fasting. This trial was registered at www.isrctn.org as ISRCTN31521726.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.