Does Your Personality Determine Your Weight?

Posted on Jul 22nd 2011 12:00PM by That's Fit Editors By Riddhi Shah for AOL Healthy Living Getty

How spontaneous or neurotic you are could dictate how much you weigh, says a new study.

Yes, that's right -- type A personalities are more likely to have a higher BMI and impulse shoppers are more likely to go through cycles of losing and gaining weight, according to research recently published by the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology.

In the first study of its kind, three researchers from the Department of Health and Human Services followed nearly 2,000 subjects over a 50-year life span. They found that those scoring high on the impulsivity scale were likely to be 11 kilograms (about 24 pounds) heavier than those on the lower end of that scale.

Which personality types are likely to be thin?

The researchers found those who scored high on the conscientiousness scale were likely to be leaner. They also found that those low on agreeableness "predicted a greater increase in the Body Mass Index across the adult life span."

Essentially, the meaner you are, the likelier you are to gain weight as you age.

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