Using the Norm Range to Predict the Effect of Food Portion Size Reductions on Compensation Over 5 Days

University of Liverpool

Status

Completed

Conditions

Portion Size

Treatments

Behavioral: portion size

Study type

Interventional

Funder types

Other

Identifiers

NCT03811210

Portion size trial

Details and patient eligibility

About

Reducing food portion size is a potential strategy to reduce energy intake. However it is unclear at what point consumers compensate for reductions in portion size by increasing energy intake from other items. This could result in no overall benefit of reducing food portion sizes. The investigators tested the hypothesis that reductions to the portion size of components of a main meal will only result in significant compensatory eating when the reduced portion size is no longer visually perceived as 'normal'. In a crossover experiment, participants were served different sized portions during lunch and dinner over 5 days: a 'large-normal', a 'small-normal', and a 'smaller than normal' portion. Intake from all other meal components consumed in the laboratory were measured.

Enrollment

39 patients

Sex

All

Ages

18 to 60 years old

Volunteers

Accepts Healthy Volunteers

Inclusion criteria

willing to consume the test foods
BMI between 22.5 - 32.5

Exclusion criteria

food allergies, intolerances or specific dietary requirements (including being vegetarian or vegan)
history of eating disorders
taking medication which affected appetite
participated in a portion size studies in the past 12 months, or in dieting or weight loss trials in the past 4 weeks