Fast Eating Is Associated with Increased BMI among High-School Students

Area of Science:

• Nutrition Science
• Pediatric Obesity Research
• Behavioral Science

Background:

• Fast self-reported eating rate (SRER) is linked to increased adiposity in children and adults.
• Previous research has not examined SRER in high-school students or validated it against objective eating rate (OBER).

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate the association between OBER and BMI z-scores (BMIz) in high-school students.
• To validate SRER against OBER in this population.
• To explore BMIz differences between SRER categories.

Main Methods:

• Three studies involving high-school students (total N=1998) from Sweden and Greece.
• Objective recording of food intake and meal duration to calculate OBER.
• Self-reported eating rate (SRER) was collected, and BMIz was calculated.

Main Results:

• Students with higher BMIz exhibited faster OBER.
• Fast SRER correlated with faster OBER, but agreement between SRER and OBER categories was minimal (κ = 0.31).
• Fast SRER was associated with higher BMIz in a large sample (N=1832). OBER demonstrated good reliability across repeated measurements.

Conclusions:

• Fast eating rate is associated with increased adiposity in high-school students.
• OBER is recommended for individual assessment, while SRER may serve as a proxy for OBER in large-scale group studies.
• This study provides the first evidence in high-school students linking fast eating to increased adiposity.