How do obese people eat?

Abstract

Introduction

The recently published DSM-5 defines Eating Disorders (ED) as “a persistent alteration in the food supply or food-related behavior leading to an alteration in the consumption or absorption of food and cause a significant deterioration in health or psychosocial functioning” and, nevertheless, it does not include obesity as an ED due to the lack of enough evidence to include it. However, everyday more evidence supports that disordered eating could be a significant factor, at least, in development and maintenance of obesity.

Objectives

Describe the eating behavior of a 180 obese sample.

Methods

One hundred and eighty patients with obesity that went to the endocrinology service in order to lose weight are referred to the Psychiatry department to be assessed. To explore the eating behavior it was administered the Bulimic Investigatory Test of Edinburgh, BITE.

Results

A total of 68.7% of patients showed a disordered eating pattern, 71.6% tend to eat a lot when feeling anxious, 63.8% eat rapidly large amounts of food, 72.8% worry about not to have control over how much eat, 40.5% consider that their pattern of eating severely disrupt their life, 40.7% eat sensibly in front of others and make up in private, 59.1% cannot stop eating when they want to and 58.3% admit binges of large amounts of food.

Conclusions

Most of our patients showed a pattern of disordered eating, and then our findings support the idea of disordered eating as a significant factor in the development and maintenance of obesity. Therefore, obesity requires a multidisciplinary approach that goes beyond the traditional nutritional guidance.

Disclosure of interest

The authors have not supplied their declaration of competing interest.