Mallory is a special projects intern at Deseret News and will soon have a degree in journalism from Brigham Young University.
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KEY POINTS
- Study involved 23 moderately trained men performing leg exercises after 10-hour fasts.
- Dark chocolate aroma reduced hunger and increased exercise repetitions by approximately 18.
- Milk chocolate aroma improved performance by nine repetitions, but didn’t suppress appetite.
An exploratory study published Wednesday in Frontiers in Physiology found chocolate might help people exercise better
In the gym
The team of researchers from the University of Malaya had “23 healthy, moderately trained men in their early to mid-20s” perform leg-day exercises after fasting for 10 hours. Before the workout, they asked the participants how hungry they were, how full they were, if they had a desire to eat and if they planned to eat in the near future
The group of men was split in thirds, and each group was given one of three odors to smell before each workout set: “liquified dark chocolate containing 90% cocoa, liquified milk chocolate containing 60% cocoa or a water sample serving as a control,” according to the report
Sweet results
The researchers found that after sniffing the dark chocolate, the men in that group reported feeling less hungry and had less desire to eat. They also performed “about 18 more repetitions” of the exercise compared to the group that smelled water
For the milk chocolate sniffers, the results were different. This group’s members said they enjoyed the smell more than the dark chocolate group did, but there were no reported changes in appetite. They did, however, still perform about nine more repetitions of the exercise than the water group
The men who performed more repetitions of the exercise did so “without increasing their perceived exertion,” senior author Dr. Mohamed Nashrudin bin Naharudin, an assistant professor on the faculty of Sports and Exercise Science at the University of Malaya, said in a news release about the study
Why does this happen?
In the article, the researchers explained the phenomenon may be linked to “what we learn about smells from a young age.”
“The dark chocolate scent serves as a learned cue for a rich, bitter and highly satiating food, which essentially tricks the system into an anticipatory state of fullness,” said Nashrudin bin Naharudin, per Frontiers’ article. “Conversely, the sweeter milk chocolate scent acts more like a hedonic reward cue, enhancing training volume by creating a highly pleasant sensory environment rather than by shifting basic metabolic hunger signals.”
The release said the results are inferential and the effects may not be unique to chocolate. Other scents could produce similar results
