Skipping breakfast is found to be slightly more beneficial than skipping dinner: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/28490511/
Readily available caloric intake, in terms of human evolution, is relatively new. I imagine our ancestors waking up in the morning and going out on a hunt or foraging for something to eat.
Personally, I've been doing intermittent fasting (16/8) for roughly seven years. I (typically) eat between 12 - 8pm and sleep between midnight-ish and 8 am. I eat a half cup of oatmeal at noon, a protein shake and some kind of fruit at roughly 3-4pm, and (usually) do some weight training roughly an hour later, followed by another protein shake after and a more broadly nutritious dinner (vegetable heavy, often with a lean protein and little to no carbohydrates) somewhere between 7-8pm. On days with this schedule my first activity after waking is spirited running/leaping up and down a flight of stairs for a total of 10 round trips. Speaking of which...
When I do cardio it's in the morning fasted. I don't have any science to back it up but for me, personally, something happens doing cardio fasted. It's "hard" but the response from my body and mind is amazing. I can't help but think my pre-agriculture caveman brain feeds off of some kind of reward in eating after running a 5k. I (typically) do this once or twice a week and the mental clarity and general "feeling" of health afterwards is amazing. At this point a more typical (at least for Americans) diet of eating a heavy breakfast, snacking on whatever throughout the day, and eating shortly before bed seems like it would ruin me.
Even though I live in modern times my practice of running what is a relatively long distance (5k) before eating seems to be an incredible "hack" compared to more typical, modern patterns of diet and exercise.
From what I understand humans have evolved to run incredibly long distances relatively efficiently because much of our densest caloric intake (historically) came as a result of simply chasing down our prey until it essentially collapsed from exhaustion.
Even though I find that it "feels" more difficult running for my calories (at this distance) I actually end up with surprisingly good performance. I can't help but think there's some fundamental drive and resulting reward system that (subconsciously) thinks "If you don't beat the animal you're chasing you're not eating today".
I imagine something similar happens in terms of your enhanced senses for smell, being similar for foraging (and potentially even prey detection).
This seems to be normal and common when fasting. It happens to me personally and I’ve read comments from other people who experience it too.
- when I am fasting, I believe the hunger itself tweake smell and taste +100 (wonderful)
- if I am fasting, my nose is clearer - this could lead to a more mechanical reason that smell and taste are better
- hot foods accentuate smell and taste. Try biting a sandwich and then take a sip of hot coffee or water - you taste the bite of sandwich more
I've been practicing and developing my personal exercise and nutrition for well over 20 years. I've been around long enough to remember low-fat wars (fat is bad - just crank up the sugar!), cardio is best for weight loss (not at all), carbs are good, carbs are bad, high protein is good, now it isn't, now it's back, etc, etc. Like I said I appreciate the evolving science but developing a routine based on the latest "we studied 20 people and..." doesn't make much sense to me. Do I have it nailed? Am I a high performance athlete? No. What I do have going for me at this point is the fact that every indicator puts me in a high percentile for just about any physical and overall health metric. So I guess I have to be doing something right, right?
This is why I started with "studies that go back and forth". After the first two or three reversals from various studies and predominant thinking I realized I should just develop whatever works for me.
My high-protein diet and strength-training focused exercise program works for me. I essentially stumbled upon running while fasted because of my intermittent fasting schedule (which I love) on a few occasions where my life schedule didn't allow for exercise before the end of my fasting window. I more-or-less just started to wonder "Why is running long distances with no caloric intake in > 12 hours so exhilarating?"
I'm also generally aware that humans have been capable of feats such as running > 25 miles at a five minute pace (or less) well before modern equipment, training, and nutrition.
There have to be reasons for all of this, hence my theory.
Or that having the bigger meals earlier in the day is most important.
Or that splitting up your eating into more, smaller meals is better, the opposite of intermittent fasting.
In the end, I think the exact skew comes down to individual digestive systems and the only macro advice is "eat a bit less / eat nutritionally wholesome stuff / move a bit more / more sleep is better than less"
Cereal companies say that.
[1] https://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/world/nutella-backs-off...
Skipping breakfast due to lack of money/food availability is a different circumstance than skipping it intentionally.
The only thing that works for everyone is - move more, eat less, eat more nutritionally, sleep enough.
Unfortunately the ability to do this is often tied to income / job status.
Most of the rest of these magic tricks only works on the margins, or to specific individuals.
Weight gain and bad sleep followed. Nowadays I make a game-like goal of "be hungry at lunch time". To do that I need to stop getting calories at ~6PM. I'll have just black coffee and water when waking up and lunch at 11AM.
I sleep much better, dental health and blood pressure have improved, weight is slowly going down. In addition I crave for stuff like broccoli, mushrooms and protein at the early lunch time - unlike the fries and pizza I desired before when eating a super late lunch at 4PM or so.
Later learned my current strategy is called intermittent fasting. Works great for me.
Beneficial in what way?
A couple of quotes from the article you linked: "In contrast, higher postprandial insulin concentrations and increased fat oxidation with breakfast skipping suggest the development of metabolic inflexibility in response to prolonged fasting that may in the long term lead to low-grade inflammation and impaired glucose homeostasis"
"Increased fat oxidation, despite higher postprandial insulin concentrations with breakfast skipping, suggests the development of metabolic inflexibility in response to prolonged fasting that may increase metabolic risk over time."
"Altogether, the present results support the association between breakfast skipping and disturbed glucose homeostasis, which is not explained by a positive energy balance."
This isn't exactly my domain of expertise, but it does not sound all that beneficial to me. Of course, something can be beneficial in one way and problematic in another. Further, I would caution against selectively reading a single article.
In a way that I won't be going crazy trying to fall asleep while hungry.
On the other hand, it's easy to skip breakfast - when I start to get a little hungry (say two hours after waking up) tea or coffee will avert that feeling easily. And feeling hungry is also much easier if I know a nice meal awaits an hour later.
All of this combined means it's much easier to not overeat during the entire day.
This is all personal of course, others might feel exactly the opposite.
Eat when you're hungry and be wary of restrictions.