Eating with A Fat Person Makes You Overeat: Study

The weight of your eating partner influences the amount of food you consume, finds a study.

Weight conscious people mostly avoid eating out with foodies to ensure they stick to their diet. Experts at the Cornell University found people tend to eat more when they are accompanied by an obese person. For the trial, researchers observed eating behaviors of a group of students who were made to dine with an actress wearing a prosthesis to look overweight and flabby. 

They noted  each time, the actress chose unhealthy food options and ate in large proportions, the students also would end up overeating. Their overall food intake wemt up by one third of the food they would normally eat when they sat with the seemingly overweight individual.But when the actress chose healthy food options like salads, the participants would also order less unhealthy eatables.

"What we found was larger your friends, the larger your appetite," said Mitsuru Shimizu co-researcher and professor at the Southern Illinois university, reports the Express.Co.UK..

These findings suggest the level of impact a person's body weight has on others' eating choices. An earlier study says serving food in small portions and in smaller plates can prevent children from eating too much. Many health experts advocate this method can be employed by parents who do not want children to develop weight issues and unhealthy eating habits.The current research authors advise people to strictly make up their minds to eat wise and healthy regardless of whom they are with to avoid binge eating and unwanted weight gain, reports the Business Standard.

More information is available online in the journal Appetite