Thing is:

1. IF you have WILLPOWER eating breakfast can help you lose weight that much faster. You are hungrier (metabolism is slightly faster and your stomach starts working early on) and unless you have serious hormonal problems this leads to faster weight loss. The downside is that if you are weak in resisting tempttation breakfast can actually make you gain weight.

2. If you absolutely need your peace of mind and can't get your mind off overeating NOT eating breakfast can help you eat less during the day. If your overeating habbits are seriously bad (binges of 1000 calories etc) then it might be better to go with slower metabolism and less cravings.

In the end it is calories in - calories out. Breakfast raises calories out and makes you want to raise calories in. No breakfast makes calories out drop and makes it easier to take less calories in.

This all is simplified and does only work for the average, hormonally healthy, individual.
If you have diabetes, Pcos, hypothyroidism etc you absolutely have to ask your doc what you should eat exactly and when.

*edit* Also remember that breakfast does not have to be a 700 calorie meal. A portion of fruit, a portion of dairy and a portion of fibre-carbs (all bran, muesli, certain cereals) should suffice and will only take you about 400 cals.

There was research somewhere that took a bunch of people who didn't usually eat breakfast and made them eat breakfast. Instead of lowering their calories later in the day, they were just as hungry as usual, and ended up eating more overall. Moral of story: if you're not a natural breakfaster, forcing yourself to eat breakfast is more likely to cause problems with weight loss than otherwise.

My pet theory is that it's related to sleep patterns. If you're a night owl, someone who is most alert in the evening and prefers to stay up late, you will probably want to eat more as the day progresses and will not be particularly keen on breakfast. If you're an early bird, you're better off having a substantial breakfast and tapering down to a small dinner. This is just my theory, though, and hasn't been researched that I know of. Either way, I reckon you should find your natural eating pattern and stick with it, whether that's to do with how often you eat or how big your meals are at different times. Some people eat their biggest meal earlier, some later, some need to eat every 2-3 hours to keep themselves going, and others take to Intermittent Fasting like a duck to water. I also suspect that making a big change to your sleep routine can change your eating habits in that respect as well; it did for me, when I found a successful treatment for my Delayed Sleep Phase Disorder.

Say what? I can't make any sense of this. The only thing that speeds up metabolically is due to TEF which is minor and is compensated later on by a lower TEF in a calorie matached diet. To put it another way - how many calories you burn from digestion depends on how much you eat and what you're eating. Not when you're eating it. Calories and macros matter not timing.

If you're suggesting that NEAT will be increased due to eating I would say that is a possibility in some but most people a simple cup of coffee will increase NEAT far more.

Personally, I think "willpower" is an outdated, and virtually useless term.

For nearly 35 years, I thought that a lack of "willpower" was responsible for nearly 35 years of dieting failure.

Then I discovered that by changing what I ate, I also changed the amount of "willpower" I had. If I eat extremely low-carb, I don't have to use "white knuckle" willpower, because I'm not hungry enough to need it. On super-high carb I'm so hungry that it takes every ounce of my mental and emotional (and sometimes it seems physical) strength to stay within my calorie budget.

Turns out that (at leat for many of us) the amount/intensity of willpower needed is proportional to carbohydrate intake. The more carbs I eat, the more willpower I need to stay on budget.

This is me 100000%!!!

I think it's hilarious how 'controversial' this topic seems to be. What works for someone will not work for everyone. A lot of us have become experts on our OWN health. Doesn't mean what we do will work for you... but it can't hurt to experiment and become an expert on yourself, too!

It's only anecdotal, but your pet theory certainly fits me. I'm a big-time night owl; I struggle to force myself into bed in time to wake up for work the next morning, my brain is in high gear in the evenings and I prefer to eat no breakfast, small lunch, after work snack and dinner.

I've been experimenting with no breakfast since I posted this thread. I definitely feel more in control throughout the day, but the fact that I've been sick for most of the time is also probably affecting things immensely. I'll have to keep tweaking once I get well.

That's an incredibly interesting theory and I find it applies to me 100%

I'm a morning person and I always have been. I was practically thrilled when my first teaching assignment put my hours at 7am to 2pm! Everyone thought I was crazy, but it was perfect because those are the hours which my brain works best and where I am most active and engaged.

I struggle to stay up past 10pm, even though I'm in my early 20s. I was always an early to bed, early to rise short of person.

I need to eat breakfast soon after I wake up in the morning. It gets me going and without it I'm literally starving by the time lunch rolls around AND I'm a cranky person. It doesn't have to be a large breakfast, but I do need something in the morning.

I also finish my eating for the day around 5:30pm most times and I hate eating any later than 7pm.

Hey, there is no need to take breakfast as such, but you can either have any smoothie or veg juice in the morning in order to complete your diet.

But, be sure to listen to your mind and body in order to live healthy life.