
Effect of breakfast on weight and energy intake - prostoalex
https://www.bmj.com/content/364/bmj.l42
======
DrScump

      As the quality of the included studies was mostly low, the findings should be interpreted with caution.
    

Given that _the quality of the included studies was mostly low_ , I choose to
ignore this paper altogether, and I'm perplexed as to why it was done in the
first place.

Garbage in, garbage out.

~~~
Someone
This study isn’t garbage. It studies stuff, and draws the conclusion that it
is garbage.

That doesn’t in any way imply this study itself is garbage.

The lesson to take away from this is _”we don’t know whether having breakfast
has any effect on weight”_.

That is (slightly) interesting news, as many (popular) articles on weight loss
claim skipping breakfast is bad (example:
[https://www.everydayhealth.com/weight/why-breakfast-is-
key-t...](https://www.everydayhealth.com/weight/why-breakfast-is-key-to-
weight-loss.aspx))

~~~
DrScump

      The lesson to take away from this is ”we don’t know whether having breakfast has any effect on weight”
    

The lesson _I_ took was that "we _don 't know_ whether the effect of breakfast
on weight is meaningful (let alone measurable) because we chose crappy data,
which means that the question _may or not be answerable_ with better data." To
me, it's worse than not doing the study at all and saving those resources for
actual science.

    
    
      many (popular) articles on weight loss claim skipping breakfast is bad
    

I agree, and that's why I read this in the first place. Meta-analyses using
studies with no relevant controls (such as distinguishing the time-restricted
feeding effect) are mostly worthless.

