THE SPONTANEOUS INTAKE OF FOOD, SELF-RATED MOODS, AND HUNGER OF UNDERWEIGHT WOMEN

To investigate the effect of being underweight on food intake, the mea l patterns of 66 normal weight women and 33 normal underweight women s pontaneously eating in their natural environment were compared. Subjec ts reported everything they ate and drank, and their mood and hunger b efore and after eating for seven consecutive days. Caloric intakes wer e equivalent and, as a result, the underweight group ate significantly more per kg body weight than the normal weight groups. The factors no rmally associated with meal size and subjective hunger were equivalent ly correlated between groups. The normal weight women had significantl y higher restraint scale scores and histories of significantly greater weight fluctuations than the underweight group. The underweight women appear to be unusual in that they are truly unrestrained eaters. It a ppears that underweight women are not at all like anorectic women in r elation to food intake and that differences found in previous studies between control and anorectic women are due primarily to the disorder itself and not to low body weight. Copyright (C) 1997 Elsevier Science Inc.