Have you checked your waist-hip ratio lately? A new study says women with larger waists and carry a lot of weight around their abdomens are more prone to binge eating. Those with apple-shaped bodies are more susceptible to losing control when eating.
A new study by researchers at Drexel University conducted the first study to explore association among fat distribution, body image disturbance and related eating disorders. They discovered that women who carry more fat in their tummy than in other parts of their body tend to be unsatisfied with how they look and lose control when eating.
"Eating disorders that are detected early are much more likely to be successfully treated," lead author, Dr. Laura Berner, who conducted the study as part of her doctoral degree in Drexel University, said in a press release.
"Our preliminary findings reveal that centralized fat distribution may be an important risk factor for the development of eating disturbance, specifically for loss-control eating," she added.
To land to the study's findings, nearly 300 young women were followed for exactly two years. They were evaluated at baseline, six months and 24 months, where measurements for height, weight and fat distribution in the body were taken.
They were also assessed for eating disorder behaviors through standardized clinical internews wherein they reported bouts of loss-of-control eating. At the start of the study, no one had any eating disorders.
The findings of the study show that women who had more body fat stored in the torso and abdominal areas were more prone to have bouts of loss-of-control eating. Apparently, they are also less contented with their body image.
"Our results suggest that centralized fat deposition increased disordered eating risk above and beyond other known risk factors. The specificity of our findings to centralized fat deposition was also surprising," Berner said.
She added that the findings highlight that a one-unit increase in the percentage of body fats in the abdomen was linked to a 53 percent increase in the risk of binge eating. However, total body percentage fat did not specifically predict the occurrence of loss-of-control eating.
Berner added that the participants did not develop any eating disorders in the duration of the study. She hopes that this sheds light in future research that explore a correlation between abdominal fat storage and the development of full-blown eating disorders like bulimia nervosa or binge-eating disorder.
Carrying excess fat in the stomach region is one of the risk factors that predisposes one to metabolic syndrome, a host of symptoms including high blood pressure, high blood sugar, and low HDL levels, and high triglycerides. Having three of these factors raises one's chances for diabetes, heart disease, and stroke. Committing to a healthy lifestyle is crucial to prevent this health condition that affects roughly 34 percent of Americans.
