Fig. 17.

Male-female sex difference in rats' propensities to binge eat. Thirty male and 30 female rats were offered standard chow ad libitum and a palatable commercial cake frosting 3 days/wk for 2 wk, a procedure that leads to increased palatable food intake in comparison to ad libitum access to the same food (138, 139). Four-hour palatable food intakes in each of the six tests were ranked across all rats, and individual differences in binge-eating propensity were scored. Data are percentages of male and female rats that were binge-eating prone (i.e., scored in the highest tertile of palatable food intake in 3 or more of the 6 tests and never scored in the lowest tertile) or binge-eating resistant (i.e., scored in the lowest tertile of palatable food intake in three or more of the six tests and never scored in the lowest tertile). *Significant sex difference, two-proportion z test, P < 0.001. Adapted from International Journal of Eating Disorders, Sex differences in binge eating patterns in male and female adult rats, Kelly L. Klump, Sarah Racine, Britny Hildebrandt, and Cheryl L. Sisk, 95: 77–87, 2008; republished with permission from John Wiley and Sons; from Klump et al. (396).