Researchers from Japan and their colleagues surveyed 3287 Japanese adults aged 30 to 60 to examine whether eating until full or eating quickly or combinations of these two eating behaviors were associated with being overweight. More than half of the men and women in the survey reported that they ate until full. Eating quickly was self-reported by 45.6% of the men and 36.3% of the women. Compared with participants who did not eat until full and did not eat quickly, those who ate until full and ate quickly were found to have a higher average body mass index (BMI). Eating until full and eating quickly were individually linked to an increased risk of being overweight. But, for those who reported both of these eating behaviors, the risk of being overweight was increased more than threefold.

The limitations of this study included self-reporting of eating patterns, which could not be validated to determine their accuracy, and the inability to determine causality - in other words, the possibility that being overweight caused people to eat until full or eat more quickly, rather than the other way around, could not be ruled out. However, the link between certain eating behavior patterns and the risk of being overweight warrants further study, especially because so many adverse health conditions are associated with obesity.