Self-reported eating rate aligns with laboratory measured eating rate but not with free-living meals

Methodological differences may be responsible for variable results from eating rate (ER) studies. It is unknown whether self-reported, lab-measured, and free-living ER’s align. This study was the first to explore relationships among self-reported, laboratory-measured and free-living ER’s. We investigated this relationship in 60 randomly selected male and female college students who were stratified by self-reported eating rate (SRER) (Slow, Medium, and Fast) from 1110 on-line survey respondents. Test day; subjects ate a prescribed breakfast (∼400 kcal) at home, recording meal duration (MD); 4 h later they individually ate an ad libitum laboratory pasta lunch at their own (natural) pace; remainder of the day they recorded free-living intake and MD. As expected the three self-reported ER categories aligned with lab ER (Fast = 83.9 ± 5.5, Medium = 63.1 ± 5.2, Slow = 53.0 ± 5.4 kcals/min). In all ER categories at all meals, men ate faster than women (Men = 80.6 ± 30.7 kcals/min: Women = 52.0 ± 21.6 kcals/min). A difference in lab measured ER by SRER F = (2, 58) = 7.677, post hoc Tukey analysis found fast differed from medium and slow. The three free-living meal ER’s did not align with self-report categories. Findings suggest various methods of measuring ER may yield differing results, at least in this population, but results support the use of SRER as a valid measure.

► First lab-based validation of self-reported eating rates using equal gender and eating rate groups.
► Compared self-reported and free-living eating rates assessed by different approaches.
► Laboratory eating rate aligned with three self-reported eating rate categories.
► Compared lab-measured and free-living eating rates at different meals.
► Compared self-reported eating rates based on three- and five-point scales used previously.