A new study published in the online journal BMJ Open suggests that eating speed could affect a person's weight.

Jay-Sheree Allen, a family medicine resident physician at the Mayo Clinic in Minnesota and a resident at the ABC News Medical Unit, explains that the Japan-based study polled more than 59,000 Japanese men and women who suffer from type 2 diabetes. They were asked to gauge their eating speed as fast, normal, or slow.

The results showed that slower eating speeds were linked to reductions in obesity, body mass index, and waist circumference.

In addition to eating speed, researchers found a few other eating habits shared by obese people, such as frequently eating dinner within two hours of going to bed, snacking after dinner, and skipping breakfast.

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