Eating habits and attitudes and their relationship with Body Mass Index (BMI)

ABSTRACT

Background and Objectives: To study the differences in eating attitudesand habits between subjects of normal weight and subjects who are overweight and to analyzein each group the relationship between these habits and attitudes and BMI, takinggender as a modulating variable.Methods: A total of 191 subjects, 117 women and 74 men, took part in this study. 102subjects made up the overweight/obesity group and 82 subjects made up the controlgroup. All of them were given a questionnaire comprising 26 items (EAT 26 Eating AttitudesTest) plus an additional group of 10 extra items.Results: The overweight group shows a significantly higher score in mood-related ingestionthan the group with normal weight. Subsequent analyses indicate that while in theoverweight/obesity group there is a positive correlation between the oral control scale andBMI, in the normal weight control group there is a negative correlation between oral controland BMI. Amongst the women in the overweight group a significant relationship wasobserved between skipping meals, oral control and BMI. 50.7% of the dieters stated thattheir attempts to lose weight had generally been followed by an even greater weight increase.Furthermore, 88.5% of the dieters stated that they had been unable to maintain theweight loss in the long term.Conclusions: The results indicate that the same restrictive practices can have differenteffects depending on the BMI and the sex of the subjects (AU)