Females More Susceptible to Sweet Tooth

Oct. 6, 2004 &#151 -- There may be a good reason why some studies these days show that females have more of a problem with obesity than males.

According to new research, females are more likely to yield to their sweet tooth than males, and they are less likely to be able to work off those extra calories. At least if they are rats. And probably if they are humans.

Psychologists Lisa A. Eckel and Shelley R. Moore of Florida State University in Tallahassee wanted to know if women are disadvantaged when it comes to controlling their weight, as several recent studies have suggested.

So they gathered up a bunch of male and female rats to see if they could induce them to overeat, a condition called hyperphagia. That turned out to be pretty easy. All they had to do to get the rats to pig out was add a little sweet milk to their regular lab chow. Both males and females found the sweeter chow more to their liking.

But that's pretty much where the similarity ended.

When the sweet chow was available, the females ate a lot more than the males. And they were far less likely than the males to spend enough time on an exercise wheel to work off those calories.

So the female rats suffered a one-two punch: They ate more if the meals were palatable, and they exercised less after eating sweets. And furthermore, the exercise wasn't as helpful for the females as it was for the males.

It can't be said for certain that the same applies to humans, but Eckel says the research certainly suggests that's the case.

"The story just keeps getting worse for women," she says.

The researchers reported their findings in a recent issue of the American Journal of Physiology — Regulatory, Integrative and Comparative Physiology. Eckel says they set out on the project because recent studies show the "rates of obesity are greater in women than in men, so it seems like something is regulating the energy balance equation, making it more difficult for women than men" to control their weight.