I've always assumed that breakfast was said to be important because it improves various facets of functional performance, not because of weight loss. Maybe general body health from spreading out digestive load.
I've always wondered whether breakfast has an impact on performance throughout the day, or just the morning. It seems fairly obvious that you'll be more tired if you don't eat breakfast though.
Most heart attacks and strokes occur in the wee hours of the morning. This is because fasting and darkness both increase stress hormone levels. Stress is highest early in the morning. Eating a good breakfast such as with orange juice and cereal helps rapidly normalize stress and boost the metabolic rate.
As a weight loss strategy skipping breakfast is bunk, anyway. The data consistently shows people who eat breakfast are thinner. Kids who eat breakfast cereals are thinner.
Not true. The wikipedia article on cortisol: "In humans, the amount of cortisol present in the blood undergoes diurnal variation; the level peaks in the early morning (approximately 8 am) and reaches its lowest level at about midnight-4 am, or three to five hours after the onset of sleep."
(Cortisol is by far the most important "molecular barometer" for stress in humans.)