Effects of body weight on taste of male and female rats.

Single-choice taste (solution and mixed-diet) tests revealed that ad lib fed male rats with increasing body weight showed increased intake on sweet taste as compared to intake of identically aged ad lib fed female rats with static body weight. On meal-time (3 hr) and meal-size (50% diet) restrictions though rats of either sex increased on intake of sweet taste, the increment shown by female was higher and it was correlated with their greater % loss in bw. Hence it appears that the basis for sweet taste preference is the mismatch between actual and target body weight irrespective of sex of animal.