Study: Eating Breakfast May Not Help You Lose Weight

BOSTON (CBS) - For years experts have advised people to eat a sensible breakfast every day as a way to lose weight, but a new study in The BMJ says that may not be the best advice.

It's been assumed that people who skip breakfast are more likely to be hungrier later in the day and may binge and eat more calories overall, which could lead to weight gain.

So Australian researchers analyzed 13 previous studies that looked at how eating or skipping breakfast affects body weight and calories consumed.

They found that people assigned to eat breakfast for about seven weeks weighed on average one pound heavier than the non-breakfast eaters. And the breakfast eaters consumed about 260 more calories a day than those who skipped it.

Some studies have suggested the opposite, and that eating breakfast can help you maintain weight, and admittedly, these researchers say the quality of the studies they examined wasn't great, but perhaps people should think twice about adding breakfast to their daily routine simply as a way to lose weight.