ABSTRACT
Consumption of a diet high in dietary fat typically promotes greater weight gain than a diet high in carbohydrates. This pattern has been revealed in experimental research in both human and animal subjects, as well as in epidemiological studies (for reviews, see Warwick and Schiffman, 1992; Weststrate, 1995; Bray et al., 2004). This greater weight gain is usually (although not invariably) attributable to greater daily kcal intake (“hyperphagia”) evoked by the high-fat diet. Researchers studying high-fat diet hyperphagia have examined the attribute(s) of high-fat foods that promote overeating, as well as individual differences in response to high-fat diets. High-fat foods are often more palatable and more calorically dense than high-carbohydrate foods; however, while both taste and caloric density may contribute to high-fat diet hyperphagia, high-fat foods need not be more palatable (Lissner et al., 1987; Warwick and Weingarten, 1995) or more calorically dense (Warwick and Weingarten, 1995) than high-carbohydrate foods in order to elicit overeating.
