Abstract
Most animals have evolved to be foragers for food. We discriminate two types of foraging, the cost to locate or obtain access to the food, and the unit cost to consume the food once it is nearby. Using closed economy studies in normal weight and genetically obese mice, we have examined the effect of either access and/or unit cost on food demand and meal patterns. We also have included wheel running either as a voluntary activity or as an access cost. Our results showed that the demand functions differ between normal, exercising, and genetically obese mice, and that changes in intake normally occur via changes in the size of individual feeding bouts or meals. In contrast, changes in access cost have only a small effect on food demand but have large effects on the pattern of intake--on meal size and the number of meals taken. Thus, although food intake is sensitive to effort, the type of effort and the mode in which it is applied is critically important. These data are discussed in terms of potential economic strategies that could address the human obesity epidemic, for example by maximally targeting meal size and/or snacking behavior.