{"doi":"10.12688/f1000research.22424.2","title":"Eating versus skipping breakfast has no discernible effect on obesity-related anthropometric outcomes: a systematic review and meta-analysis","abstract":"<ns3:p> <ns3:bold>Background:</ns3:bold> Eating or skipping breakfast for weight interests scientific and lay communities. Our objective was to systematically review and meta-analyze causal effects of eating versus skipping breakfast on obesity-related anthropometric outcomes in humans. </ns3:p> <ns3:p> <ns3:bold>Methods:</ns3:bold> Six databases were searched for obesity- and breakfast-related terms (final search: 02 JAN 2020). Studies needed to isolate eating versus skipping breakfast in randomized controlled trials. Mean differences were synthesized using inverse variance random effects meta-analysis for each outcome. Positive estimates indicate higher outcomes in breakfast conditions (e.g., weight gain). Leave-one-out analysis for sensitivity and a secondary baseline habit-by-breakfast assignment analysis were performed. Risk of bias was assessed using the Cochrane risk of bias tool. </ns3:p> <ns3:p> <ns3:bold>Results:</ns3:bold> Ten articles (12 comparisons; 6d to 12wk) were included. Conditions included recommendations to eat versus skip breakfast, or provision of some or all meals. 95% confidence intervals of all main analyses included the null value of no difference for each outcome: body weight (0.17 kg [-0.40,0.73], k=12, n=487, I <ns3:sup>2</ns3:sup> =74.5), BMI (0.07 kg/m <ns3:sup>2</ns3:sup> [-0.10,0.23, k=8, n=396, I <ns3:sup>2</ns3:sup> =54.1), body fat percentage (-0.27% [-1.01,0.47], k=6, n=179, I <ns3:sup>2</ns3:sup> =52.4), fat mass (0.24 kg [-0.21,0.69], k=6, n=205, I <ns3:sup>2</ns3:sup> =0.0), lean mass (0.18 kg [-0.08,0.44], k=6, n=205, I <ns3:sup>2</ns3:sup> =6.7), waist circumference (0.18 cm [-1.77,2.13], k=4, n=102, I <ns3:sup>2</ns3:sup> =78.7), waist:hip ratio (0.00 [-0.01,0.01], k=4, n=102, I <ns3:sup>2</ns3:sup> =8.0), sagittal abdominal diameter (0.19 cm [-2.35,2.73], k=2, n=56, I <ns3:sup>2</ns3:sup> =0.0), and fat mass index (0.00 kg/m <ns3:sup>2</ns3:sup> [-0.22,0.23], k=2, n=56, I <ns3:sup>2</ns3:sup> =0.0). Subgroup analysis showed only one statistically significant result. The interaction effect for BMI (–0.36[-0.65,-0.07]) indicates assignment to conditions consistent with baseline habits had lower BMI. Leave-one-out analysis did not indicate substantial influence of any one study. </ns3:p> <ns3:p> <ns3:bold>Conclusions:</ns3:bold> There was no discernible effect of eating or skipping breakfast on obesity-related anthropometric measures when pooling studies with substantial design heterogeneity and sometimes statistical heterogeneity. </ns3:p> <ns3:p> <ns3:bold>Registration:</ns3:bold> PROSPERO <ns3:ext-link xmlns:ns4=\"http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink\" ext-link-type=\"uri\" ns4:href=\"https://www.crd.york.ac.uk/PROSPERO/display_record.php?RecordID=33290\">CRD42016033290</ns3:ext-link> . </ns3:p>","journal":"F1000Research","year":2020,"id":112652,"datarank":0.0,"base_score":0.0,"endowment":0.0,"self_citation_contribution":0.0,"citation_network_contribution":0.0,"self_endowment_contribution":0.0,"citer_contribution":0.0,"corpus_percentile":null,"corpus_rank":null,"citation_count":3,"citer_count":0,"citers_with_citation_signal":0,"citers_with_endowment":0,"datacite_reuse_total":0,"is_dataset":false,"is_dataset_confidence":0.873,"is_data_producer":false,"deposit_databanks":null,"is_oa":true,"file_count":0,"downloads":0,"has_version_chain":false,"published_date":"2020-01-01","fair_score":null,"fair_percentile":null,"algorithm_id":"datarank_citation_only_1hop_v6","ranking_scope":"data_only","authors":[{"id":532717,"name":"Jillian E. Milanes","orcid":null,"position":1,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":71621,"name":"David B. Allison","orcid":"0000-0003-3566-9399","position":2,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":85471,"name":"Andrew W. Brown","orcid":"0000-0002-1758-8205","position":3,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":528483,"name":"Michelle M Bohan Brown","orcid":"0000-0002-7959-9225","position":0,"is_corresponding":true}],"reference_count":58,"raw_metadata":null,"created_at":"2026-07-18T23:13:17.845093Z","pmid":null,"pmcid":null,"fwci":null,"citation_percentile":null,"influential_citations":0,"oa_status":null,"license":null,"views":0,"total_file_size_bytes":0,"version_count":0,"fair_f":null,"fair_a":null,"fair_i":null,"fair_r":null,"fair_zscore":null,"fair_rationale":null,"fair_model":null,"fair_agent_version":null,"fair_fulltext_source":null,"fair_has_llm":null,"fair_computed_at":null,"clinical_trials":[],"software_tools":[],"db_accessions":[],"linked_datasets":[],"topics":[]}