Are you obese? Well, blame it on your social nature, for a new study has found
that outgoing and sociable people are more likely to be overweight, while
anxious and worried types tend to be
thin.

Masako Kakizaki of Tohoku
University and colleagues questioned 30,000 people, aged between 40 and 64, in
north-eastern Japan about their height and weight. The participants were also
given a personality test.

The
researchers found that extroverts had a greater chance than other people to have
a body mass index (BMI) of more than 25, a commonly used definition of
overweight.

After controlling
for other factors, such as smoking, men in the most outgoing group were 1.73
times more likely to be obese than their most introvert counterparts.

Meanwhile, sociable women were
1.53 times as likely to be obese.

On the contrary, those who had
the most anxious personalities were twice as likely as the least anxious to be
underweight, or have a BMI of less than 18.5, the researchers said.

"These results may provide
clues to devising more effective measures for preventing overweight, obesity or
underweight,"

News.com.au

quoted the researchers, as
saying.

Via Times of India