The test were meaningful to what is being tested. I was unable to access the full article using my schools library so I was unable to retrieve the full article (and I ain't paying for it).

It basically confirms what has been tested before. If you eat a lot of calories and don't exercise you gain weight. If you eat a lot of calories and exercise you will gain weight, but not as much.

What I am interested in finding out is how did they control for what was eaten and was it for every meal. Did they monitor only breakfast or did they give everyone the same meal plan for the whole day and vary the timing of meals. Were the ratios of protein, fat, and carbohydrates the same for each person and total calories consumed.

Unfortunately with the media they will take pieces of information out of context or only parts of it and put together a story. Basically they will start stories stating "Fat is bad" citing obesity, health problems, and social stigma, then cite a few studies that measured feeding rats nothing but butter or junk food. A few weeks or months later they will have a story stating "Fat is good" and cite studies that measure feeding rats fish oils and avocados.

So which is it? The answer is both and the studies will confirm it.