The benefits of eating a big breakfast are entirely fictional, researchers have claimed.
A new study says eating a big breakfast simply leads to people piling on calories.
A study of 300 people found that those who ate a big breakfast showed no sign of reducing calorie intake later in the day to compensate.
Researcher Dr Volker Schusdziarra, from the Else-Kröner-Fresenius Center of Nutritional Medicine, Germany, reached the conclusions after studying diaries of eating habits reported by the 300 people.
Some of them skipped breakfast while others ate a small one and others liked to tuck into a full cooked meal.
Big breakfasts were on average 400kcal bigger than small ones.
Writing in the Nutrition Journal, Dr Schusdziarra says: "The results of the study showed that people ate the same at lunch and dinner, regardless of what they had for breakfast."
Journal spokeswoman Dr Hilary Glover said: "It seems that there is no magic and that, unfortunately, in the fight for weight-loss, eating a large breakfast must be counteracted by eating substantially less during the rest of the day."
Impact of breakfast on daily energy intake – an analysis of absolute versus relative breakfast calories Volker Schusdziarra, Margit Hausmann, Claudia Wittke, Johanna Mittermeier, Marietta Kellner, Aline Naumann, Stefan Wagenpfeil, Johannes Erdmann. Nutrition Journal (in press)
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