Study: Obese women appear more impulsive

BIRMINGHAM, Ala., Nov. 11 (UPI) -- Obese women display weaker impulse control than normal-weight women, but obese and normal-weight men have similar impulsivity levels, U.S. researchers said.

Researchers at the University of Alabama at Birmingham conducted the study to see how obese and normal-weight men and women differed in their decision-making skills, specifically in delay discounting -- the measure of how much an individual is driven by immediate gratification vs. the willingness to wait for delayed but greater rewards.

The researchers gave the 95 male and female study participants the choice of receiving varying hypothetical amounts of money immediately or fixed hypothetical amounts of money to be received after delays of two weeks, one month, six months or one, three, five or 10 years. The hypothetical rewards ranged from $1,000 to $50,000.

The study, published of the journal Appetite, found that obese women discounted the value of future rewards at a rate three-to-four times greater than that of normal-weight women -- suggesting greater impulsivity.

Obese men, however, and the male and female control subjects all showed similar levels of delay discounting. The results were the same even when the researchers controlled for differences in IQ and income, both of which have been found to be related to measures of impulsivity.