According to research done by Yale University, fat people could be more susceptible to gaining weight because of their enhanced sense of smell and ability to vividly imagine food, leading to more intense cravings than their thinner counterparts.
The idea for the research was based around Kavanagh’s Elaborated Intrusion Theory of Desire, that claims the more people are able to create visual images of food and imagine the smells, the more they will crave the food.
According to results from the study, the people who had a higher BMI were able to imagine food odours in a more vivid capacity than those who had a lower BMI.
Lead author in the study, Doctor Barkha Patel, claimed:
These findings highlight the need for a more individualistic approach in identifying factors that may increase risk for weight gain.
For me that seems all well and good, but really, no matter how strong a craving, people need to learn to control them.
