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

Background and Objectives: To study the differences in eating attitudes and habits between subjects of normal weight and subjects who are overweight and to analyze in each group the relationship between these habits and attitudes and BMI, taking gender as a modulating variable. Methods: A total of 191 subjects, 117 women and 74 men, took part in this study. 102 subjects made up the overweight/obesity group and 82 subjects made up the control group. All of them were given a questionnaire comprising 26 items (EAT 26 Eating Attitudes Test) plus an additional group of 10 extra items. Results: The overweight group shows a significantly higher score in mood-related ingestion than the group with normal weight. Subsequent analyses indicate that while in the overweight/obesity group there is a positive correlation between the oral control scale and BMI, in the normal weight control group there is a negative correlation between oral control and BMI. Amongst the women in the overweight group a significant relationship was observed between skipping meals, oral control and BMI. 50.7% of the dieters stated that their 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 the weight loss in the long term. Conclusions: The results indicate that the same restrictive practices can have different effects depending on the BMI and the sex of the subjects.