Sedentary behavior and food cravings in diverse overweight women: a pilot study.

UNLABELLED

Obesity rates have risen sharply in the United States, with minority women among those most affected. Although a majority of Americans are considered inactive, little attention has been devoted to studying the correlation of sedentary behavior with dietary cravings in adults.

OBJECTIVE

The current study used objective and self-report methods to measure sedentary behavior and its relationship to food cravings in a sample of overweight African American and Caucasian women.

DESIGN

Thirty-nine adult women (54% African American) with an average body mass index of 33.7 wore accelerometers for one week and completed self-report measures of sedentary behavior, physical activity, and food cravings.

RESULTS

Self-reported television viewing time was slightly longer (3.0 versus 2.5 hours), although total sedentary time was shorter (6.7 versus 8.0 hours) on weekends versus weekdays. Weekend but not weekday sedentary time and television viewing were associated with stable aspects of food cravings rather than craving for specific foods.

CONCLUSION

In this small sample, only a third of all sedentary time was attributed to viewing television. Assessing whether sedentary behavior occurs by necessity versus choice may be a factor to consider in examining its relationship to food cravings.