Nutritionists warn that eating too rapidly can fool the body into consuming more calories than necessary because of the time it takes for feelings of fullness to travel from the stomach to the brain.
46% of the men and 36% of the women who took part in the study admitted that they ate quickly and 51% and 58% respectively said they ate until they were full.
Both factors independently raised the risk of becoming overweight to around twice that of people who ate slowly and finished before they felt full. Combined, they tripled the chance of becoming overweight.
The study, carried out by the University of Osaka and published on the website of the British Medical Journal, looked at more than 3,000
Japanese men and women, aged 30-69, over three years.
Professor Hiroyasu Iso said that the combination of eating until full and eating quickly appeared to have a "supra-addictive" effect on the chances of becoming overweight.
More than a quarter of British adults are classed as overweight or obese.
News Digest – Kate Devlin UK