FATTIES really do enjoy food more than other people, a study found.

Those who are obese get more pleasure from each bite than those who are overweight or normal weight.

1 People who are obese gain more pleasure from eating food Credit: Getty - Contributor

And their satisfaction falls at a slower rate, meaning they still get a mental boost when others are full.

Researchers from the University of Iowa, in the US, gave squares of chocolate to 290 adults.

Participants were asked to rate how much satisfaction they got from the first square.

They could then eat as much as they wanted, as long as they rated each piece individually.

Obese people gave a higher rating to the first square than overweight and normal weight volunteers.

And they were still rating the choc highly when others were sick of it.

People ate between two and 51 pieces.



PUBLIC HEALTH PROBLEM

Obese women had to eat 12.5 pieces to fall to the same level as a non-obese woman who ate ten.

This corresponds to a difference of 67.5 calories.

Study leader Dr Linnea Polgreen said: “Obesity is a major public health problem.

“Causes of obesity are varied, but food consumption decisions play an important role, especially decisions about what foods to eat and how much to consume.

“Taste perceptions may lead to overeating.

“If people with obesity have different taste perceptions than non-obese people, it could lead to better understanding of obesity and possibly designing new approaches to prevent obesity.”

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The researchers said it may be necessary to find ways to “manipulate” taste perceptions to put obese people off food.

Two in three British adults are overweight or obese, increasing their risk of heart disease, cancer and type-2 diabetes.

The findings are published in the Journal of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics.