Test meal intake in obese binge eaters in relation to mood and gender

Objective: We assessed test meal intake in men and women with and without binge eating disorder (BED) in relation to mood score (Zung scale). Methods: Eighty-five overweight subjects (24 males and 61 females) participated; 30 subjects with BED and 55 without BED. Following an 8-hr fast, subjects consumed a liquid test meal until extremely full. Results: BED subjects consumed significantly more (p = .009) of the test meal(1,032 g ± 429) than the non-binge eaters (737 g ± 399). The men ingested more than the women (p = .002). BED subjects also had higher depression scores (p = .01), without differing by gender. However, depression scores were unrelated to test meal intakes (r = -.01). Discussion: The larger meal intakes of the BED group may be due to the larger stomach capacity previously found in both bulimics and obese subjects. The findings also support the premise that BED, listed in the DSM-IV appendix for further study, is found in a distinct subgroup of overweight individuals.