Eating On The Run Is ‘No Way To Go’

Eating on the run is no way to go if you are watching their weight.

A new study involving 3 groups each with 20 women, tested the effects of various forms of “distracted” snacking, meaning eating while walking, watching TV or having a conversation.

It found that among women who were dieting, eating while moving had an undesirable effect. They ate substantially more than other dieters a short time later.

It’s not clear what the findings, from an “artificial” lab study, could mean for weight-conscious people, the researchers said.

“In the real world there are many other factors such as food availability, mood and peer pressure that influence what and how much we eat,” said lead researcher Jane Ogden, a professor of health psychology at the University of Surrey, in England.

“But,” she added, “the results from this study indicate that for dieters, eating on the go may well lead to them overeating later on in the day.”

The Big Q: Why would that be?

According to Prof. Ogden, it may be a mental effect.

People who eat on the run may not be fully aware of what they are eating, or they may feel like they deserve more food later on because they are being active.

And dieters may be especially prone to that mindset, Prof. Ogden said. Because they are habitually denying themselves, she explained, they may overeat when they feel they’ve earned some extra calories.

It is unlikely that women in this study did actually need those extra calories, according to the researchers. Those who ate ‘on the go’ simply walked around a corridor for 5 mins, so their calorie-burning was minimal.

In contrast, their calorie intake, just a short time later, was substantially higher than that of dieters who’d snacked while watching TV or having a conversation.

They were especially fond of Chocolate.

Jennifer McDaniel, a registered dietitian, agreed that dieters who eat on the go might feel they have earned the right to indulge. “We often overestimate how much we burn when we move, and I believe that even walking for a mere five minutes potentially justified the intake of [chocolate],” said Ms. McDaniel, a spokesperson for the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics.

But she agreed that it’s difficult to tell whether a lab experiment would translate well into real life.

A long-term study is necessary to answer that question, she said.

People who sit down to eat mindfully are also more likely to choose nutritious foods and have other healthy habits, while those who eat on the run may be downing a lot of processed convenience foods.

The findings, reported on 20 August in the Journal of Health Psychology, are based on 60 women, about 50% of whom were dieting.