SynthesisBMJ (Clinical research ed.)2019
Effect of breakfast on weight and energy intake: systematic review and meta-analysis of randomised controlled trials.
Synthesis in BMJ (Clinical research ed.), 2019. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 83 papers, 14 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.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
83 citing papers in PubMed, 14 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 199 citations in OpenAlex.
- Meal time and meal regularity: is it associated with pediatric obesity? A systematic review and meta-analysis.International journal of obesity (2005) · 2026Pooled it
- Temporal Eating Patterns and Colorectal Cancer: A Systematic Review.Current nutrition reports · 2025Pooled it
- Prevention of Obesity among Adults: Evidence- and Consensus-Based Guideline.Obesity facts · 2025Guideline
- Pooled it
- Medical Nutrition Therapy Interventions Provided by Dietitians for Adult Overweight and Obesity Management: An Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics Evidence-Based Practice Guideline.Journal of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics · 2023Guideline
- 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
- Pooled it
- Pooled it
- Association between Breakfast Skipping and Body Weight-A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis of Observational Longitudinal Studies.Nutrients · 2021Pooled it
- Pooled it
- Impact of Meal Frequency on Anthropometric Outcomes: A Systematic Review and Network Meta-Analysis of Randomized Controlled Trials.Advances in nutrition (Bethesda, Md.) · 2020Pooled it
- Breakfast Skipping, Body Composition, and Cardiometabolic Risk: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis of Randomized Trials.Obesity (Silver Spring, Md.) · 2020Pooled it
- Successful weight loss maintenance: A systematic review of weight control registries.Obesity reviews : an official journal of the International Association for the Study of Obesity · 2020Pooled it
- Pooled it
- No effects of high-The British journal of nutrition · 2025Trial
- No Effect of High Eating Frequency Compared with Low Eating Frequency on Appetite and Inflammation Biomarkers: Results from a Randomized Crossover Clinical Trial.The Journal of nutrition · 2024Trial
- Distribution of energy and macronutrient intakes across eating occasions in European children from 3 to 8 years of age: The EU Childhood Obesity Project Study.European journal of nutrition · 2023Trial
- Late isocaloric eating increases hunger, decreases energy expenditure, and modifies metabolic pathways in adults with overweight and obesity.Cell metabolism · 2022Trial
- Trial
- Determinants favoring weight regain after weight-loss therapy among postmenopausal women.Scientific reports · 2020Trial
23 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
Corrections and comments
- Commented on by
Authors and funding
7 authors at 1 institution in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
objectiveTo examine the effect of regular breakfast consumption on weight change and energy intake in people living in high income countries.
designSystematic review and meta-analysis. DATA SOURCES: PubMed, Ovid Medline, and CINAHL were searched for randomised controlled trials published between January 1990 and January 2018 investigating the effect of breakfast on weight or energy intake. ClinicalTrials.gov and the World Health Organization's International Clinical Trials Registry Platform search portal were also searched in October 2018 to identify any registered yet unpublished or ongoing trials. ELIGIBILITY CRITERIA FOR SELECTING STUDIES: Randomised controlled trials from high income countries in adults comparing breakfast consumption with no breakfast consumption that included a measure of body weight or energy intake. Two independent reviewers extracted the data and assessed the risk of bias of included studies. Random effects meta-analyses of the effect of breakfast consumption on weight and daily energy intake were performed.
resultsOf 13 included trials, seven examined the effect of eating breakfast on weight change, and 10 examined the effect on energy intake. Meta-analysis of the results found a small difference in weight favouring participants who skipped breakfast (mean difference 0.44 kg, 95% confidence interval 0.07 to 0.82), but there was some inconsistency across trial results (I
conclusionThis study suggests that the addition of breakfast might not be a good strategy for weight loss, regardless of established breakfast habit. Caution is needed when recommending breakfast for weight loss in adults, as it could have the opposite effect. Further randomised controlled trials of high quality are needed to examine the role of breakfast eating in the approach to weight management. STUDY REGISTRATION: PROSPERO registration number CRD42017057687.
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.