Breakfast: To skip or not to skip? An evidence-based perspective on weight management and overall health

Of the three main meal opportunities in a typical day, breakfast has perhaps attracted the most debate. For decades, breakfast has often been described as “the most important meal of the day”—a meal that should never be missed. More recently, that message has been challenged. Intermittent fasting, time-restricted eating and different approaches to weight management have brought a very different question to the table: Do we actually need breakfast at all?

The debate becomes particularly interesting when weight management enters the conversation. Some people deliberately skip breakfast in an attempt to reduce their total calorie intake, while others believe that eating breakfast helps them control hunger and eat better throughout the day. You will find research, and plenty of opinions, supporting arguments on both sides. This leaves us with two important questions: Does skipping breakfast actually make a meaningful difference to weight management? And beyond the number on the scale, what might regularly skipping breakfast mean for our overall health?

Does skipping breakfast actually help with weight loss?

Let’s explore some answers from the evidence. A 2019 systematic review published in The BMJ brought together 13 randomised controlled trials comparing breakfast eating with breakfast skipping. Overall, people assigned to skip breakfast consumed fewer calories during the day, while the pooled results showed a small difference in body weight—about 0.44 kg—in favour of breakfast skipping. The researchers, however, cautioned against drawing strong long-term conclusions because most of the studies were relatively short and the quality of the evidence was not particularly strong. A difference of less than half a kilogram is also quite modest.

A 2023 systematic review reached a similar, but particularly interesting, conclusion. Breakfast skipping was associated with a small reduction in body weight—about 0.66 kg—but also with an increase in LDL cholesterol of about 9.9 mg/dL. LDL cholesterol is often referred to as ‘bad’ cholesterol because higher levels are associated with greater cardiovascular risk.

This finding is noteworthy. A behaviour that produces a small reduction on the weighing scale is not automatically a healthier behaviour. While it may help with one goal, it could potentially create challenges elsewhere. Weight loss, therefore, should not be considered in isolation from the other effects an eating pattern may have on our health.

Importantly, not all the research show a weight advantage from skipping breakfast. Another systematic review and meta-analysis of randomised trials found no discernible difference between eating and skipping breakfast for body weight, body mass index, body fat or waist circumference. Taken together, the evidence does not support a simple rule that breakfast must be skipped in order to lose weight.

Other research also points in a different direction. A 2020 meta-analysis of 45 observational studies found that people who ate breakfast less frequently were more likely (44% higher risk) to have overweight or obesity. A 2021 review of longitudinal adult studies similarly found that skipping breakfast on three or more days per week, compared with skipping it on two or fewer days per week, was associated with an 11% higher risk of developing overweight or obesity. The authors however described the evidence for weight gain as limited. These studies cannot prove that skipping breakfast causes weight gain, because breakfast skippers may differ in many other aspects of diet and lifestyle. They do, however, further illustrate why the relationship between breakfast and body weight is not straightforward.

So, in simple language, weight management is about more than removing one meal. If someone normally eats breakfast and simply removes it without compensating later, total calorie intake may fall, and weight loss could follow.

People may miss breakfast for many reasons: they may not feel hungry in the morning, have eaten late the night before, be rushing to work or school, work unusual shifts, be following a fasting pattern, be trying to reduce calorie intake, feel unwell, or simply not have food available. Some people find that skipping breakfast leaves them excessively hungry later in the day, which may make portions, food choices or snacking more difficult to manage. What happens later in the day after breakfast is skipped, therefore matters.

There is also an important difference between deliberately following a well-planned time-restricted eating pattern and routinely missing breakfast because of a busy schedule, irregular eating habits or limited access to food. These situations should not automatically be treated as the same nutritional behaviour, because the reasons for skipping breakfast—and what happens afterwards—may be quite different.

And what about long-term health?

This is where particular caution is warranted before routinely recommending breakfast skipping to the general population, whether for weight management or other perceived health benefits.

Skipping breakfast and cardiovascular health

A 2025 meta-analysis involving more than 2.3 million participants found that breakfast skipping was associated with a 17% higher risk of cardiovascular disease, including higher risks of coronary artery disease and stroke. These are observational data, so they demonstrate association rather than proving that skipping breakfast itself causes cardiovascular disease. Nevertheless, they are important when considering the bigger health picture.

Similarly, a 2024 meta-analysis of prospective studies involving more than 240,000 adults found associations between breakfast skipping and higher all-cause and cardiovascular mortality, although the authors also reported limitations, low certainty of evidence and some inconsistency in the findings.

Breakfast skipping has also been associated with a higher risk of developing type 2 diabetes in prospective studies. As with the cardiovascular evidence, these observational findings cannot establish that skipping breakfast itself is the cause.

The Ghanaian context adds another layer

We also have relevant evidence from Ghana.

Among 378 Ghanaian adults living with type 2 diabetes, breakfast skipping was associated with abdominal obesity and hypertension. Again, because this was observational research, we cannot say breakfast skipping caused these conditions. The finding does, however, add to the reasons for caution before breakfast avoidance is presented as a universally beneficial weight-management strategy.

Evidence among younger Ghanaians raises another issue. A study of schoolchildren in Manya Krobo found that children who ate breakfast had significantly higher daily intakes of energy, vitamin A, iron and zinc than breakfast skippers. Breakfast contributed roughly 30–47% of several nutrients consumed during the day.

Among adolescents studied in the Ho Municipality, breakfast was the meal most commonly skipped. Importantly, skipping breakfast was not significantly associated with lower overweight or obesity in that study.

There is also a socioeconomic dimension we should not ignore. In a study of Ghanaian adolescents, half of those who did not eat breakfast reported that the main reason was a lack of food at home. This highlights the need for care when broad recommendations about skipping breakfast are communicated in our setting, where missing breakfast may have more to do with food availability than with weight-management goals.

So, should you eat breakfast when you are trying to manage your weight?

It is clear from the evidence above that the answer is much more nuanced, as is often the case with many nutrition controversies. There is no single approach that will be right for everyone. The decision should take into account the individual, their overall eating pattern, their health status and how eating—or skipping—breakfast affects the rest of their day.

Breakfast may be particularly useful for someone who finds that skipping it leads to excessive hunger and overeating later; needs an opportunity to improve their intake of fruit, whole grains, protein or other nutrient-rich foods; is a growing child or adolescent; takes medication that needs to be coordinated with meals; or has a medical condition for which meal timing forms part of their management.

On the other hand, some adults may do well without an early breakfast, particularly if they are not hungry in the mornings, meet their nutritional needs later in the day and maintain a consistent, balanced overall eating pattern. For some, skipping breakfast may also form part of a deliberately planned time-restricted eating approach. All of these factors should be considered when deciding whether including—or omitting—breakfast is appropriate within an individual weight-management plan.

Of course, deciding whether to eat breakfast is only part of the picture; what you eat, how breakfast fits into the rest of your day, your health status, appetite patterns, medication use and overall weight-management goals all matter. A Registered Dietitian can help you assess these factors and develop a meal plan that is nutritionally adequate, practical, sustainable and appropriate for your individual needs.

The bottom line

Successful weight management is rarely determined by whether one meal is eaten or skipped. It is shaped by the overall dietary pattern, total energy intake, food quality, physical activity, sleep, health status and eating behaviours over time. Perhaps the better question to ask is: “What eating pattern can I sustain that helps me meet my nutritional needs, manage my weight and protect my long-term health?”

Written by Dr. Laurene Boateng (PhD, RD)

Dr. Laurene Boateng is a Registered Dietitian and Senior Lecturer in the Department of Dietetics, University of Ghana. She is the founder and editor-in-chief of Full Proof Nutrition, a Nutrition Consultancy committed to providing reliable, evidence-based, and practical healthy eating advice through its website www.fullproofnutrition.com.  Click here to join Full Proof Nutrition WhatsApp channel to receive more educative content. Send us a mail on fullproofnutrition@gmail.com. Grab a copy of my book on healthy eating – available now on Selar (Buy HEALTHY EATING MADE SIMPLE by Laurene Boateng on Selar) and Amazon (https://amzn.eu/d/6i9OeVb).

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DISCLAIMER: The Views, Comments, Opinions, Contributions and Statements made by Readers and Contributors on this platform do not necessarily represent the views or policy of Multimedia Group Limited.