Faster Self-Reported Speed of Eating Is Related to Higher Body Mass Index in a Nationwide Survey of Middle-Aged Women

Objective and Subjective Eating Speeds Are Related to Body Composition and Shape in Female College Students

“…The subjects in the present study who assessed themselves as fast eaters tended to be overweight and obese, and indeed ate the test meal with a smaller total number of chews and shorter total meal duration than did the slow eaters. This is consistent with the findings of many previous studies of the relationships between the objectively and subjectively assessed eating speeds and the body composition and shape (3)(4)(5)(6)(7)(8)(9)(10)(11)(12)(13)(14)(15)(16)(17)(18)(19). Previous studies have also demonstrated that fast eating induces overeating, and that overeating is related to weight gain due to the ingestion of a larger volume of food before experiencing satiety (22)(23)(24).…”

“…Cross-sectional, longitudinal and experimental studies have provided strong evidence for fast eating inducing overweight (3)(4)(5)(6)(7)(8)(9)(10)(11)(12)(13)(14)(15)(16)(17)(18)(19). The subjects in the present study who assessed themselves as fast eaters tended to be overweight and obese, and indeed ate the test meal with a smaller total number of chews and shorter total meal duration than did the slow eaters.…”

“…Slow eating, which involves chewing food slowly and thoroughly, is an effective strategy for preventing overweight and obesity, with many previous studies having found eating speed to be related to the body composition and shape (3)(4)(5)(6)(7)(8)(9)(10)(11)(12)(13)(14)(15)(16)(17)(18). However, these studies were limited by their use of questionnaires to assess the eating speed.…”

“…The present study assessed eating speed both objectively and subjectively because it was unclear whether the subjective eating speed, as used in previous studies (3)(4)(5)(6)(7)(8)(9)(10)(11)(12)(13)(14)(15)(16)(17)(18), actually reflects a subject's actual eating speed. The objectively assessed variables of eating speed, total number of chews and total meal duration were significantly negatively correlated with the body mass, %Fat, BMI, and circumferences of the waist, abdomen and hip.…”

Speed of eating and 3-year BMI change: a nationwide prospective study of mid-age women

“…The prevention of weight gain in premenopausal women has been identified as an important health goal (4) , since abdominal adiposity and cardiovascular risk increase markedly following menopause (5,6) . Faster self-reported rates of eating have been shown in cross-sectional studies to be associated with excess body weight (7)(8)(9)(10) , independent of self-reported energy intake (9,10) . Results from our baseline survey of mid-age women (7) showed that after adjusting for demographic, health and behavioural variables, every one-category increase in self-reported speed of eating ('very slow', relatively slow', 'medium', 'relatively fast', 'very fast') was associated with a 2·8 % increase in BMI.…”