Thinking about the bigger picture: Influence of holistic processing on the dishware size effect.

Individuals vary in the extent to which they engage in holistic and analytic information processing styles. Holistic processing involves focusing on the interconnectivity and relatedness of items being evaluated, while analytic processing involves focusing on items being judged as discrete elements and independent of context. We examined the contribution of these basic processing styles to the dishware size effect, which proposes that food consumption patterns may be influenced by the size of the dishware (i.e., larger plates increase the amount of food consumed). We observed that participants self-served and consumed more food when using and eating from a larger plate (LP) compared with a smaller plate (SP) (p≤0.01). Importantly, participants who reported greater levels of holistic information processing related to attitudes towards contradictions and attention allocation exhibited smaller variations in portions of food self-served and consumed based on the dishware size used (SP vs. LP). These findings suggest that the susceptibility of individuals to the dishware size effect may be associated with an individual's dispositional tendency to process information in a holistic (vs. analytic) manner.

Influence of impending healthy food consumption on snacking: Nudging vs. compensatory behaviour.

The use of nudging, prompts or primes in the environment aligned with desired goals, as a strategy to promote healthy behaviour has gained increasing attention. Yet, the adoption of healthy behaviours may ironically be frustrated by licensing of competing goals for indulgence, producing compensatory unhealthy behaviours. However, little is known of these unintended compensatory effects of "health" nudging, and the conditions in which engagement of healthy behaviours may continue to activate health goals versus compensatory goals for indulgence. Over two studies, we examined both behavioural phenomena by investigating the influence of impending healthy food consumption on snack intake. We predicted that anticipated engagement of healthy eating will prime healthier eating behaviour (decreased snack intake), unless consumption of an anticipated healthy meal is expected to lead to an energy deficit (a "low calorie" meal), which may instead activate compensatory indulgence (increased snack intake). Study 1 demonstrated that the increase in the saliency of "healthiness" (unrelated to calorie content) from an anticipated meal resulted in lower snack intake (potato crisp consumption). Study 2 revealed that the anticipated consumption of a healthy meal described as low in caloric content promoted compensatory eating behaviour. This maladaptive behaviour was also observed to be associated with the endorsement of weight-regulation-related compensatory health beliefs. Furthermore, the findings also suggest that more restrained eaters (who experience competing goals for health and indulgence) may be especially likely to engage in healthier eating behaviour when anticipating healthy meals that were not portrayed to be low in calories. Taken together, our findings suggest that nudging by increasing the salience of healthy options without implying resulting negative energy balance is an effective strategy in promoting healthy eating behaviour and may be less prone to maladaptive compensatory behaviour, especially for individuals actively regulating their dietary behaviour.

When exercise does not pay: Counterproductive effects of impending exercise on energy intake among restrained eaters.

Evidence suggests people may overestimate the effectiveness of future positive behaviour, leading to counterproductive behaviours in the present. Applied to weight-management, we hypothesize that inaccurate expectations about impending exercise may impede weight management by promoting overconsumption prior to exercise. This study aimed to determine how expectations about impending exercise and its potential ability to expend energy may influence i) energy intake before exercise and ii) overall energy balance (energy intake minus energy expended via exercise). Using a randomised, counterbalanced design, 21 inactive, overweight males, following a baseline session, completed two experimental trials: i) ad-libitum snack meal (potato-crisps) followed by an exercise session (SE) and ii) ad-libitum snack meal only (SO). There was no main effect of condition (SE vs. SO) on ad-libitum snack intake (p = .917). However, after accounting for dietary restraint (covariate), a difference in snack intake between SE and SO was revealed (p = .050). Specifically, participants who scored higher in dietary restraint consumed more in the SE (vs. SO) session (162 ±â€¯359 kcal more) compared with participants who scored lower in dietary restraint (89 ±â€¯135 kcal less). Among restrained eaters, the relative (net) energy consumed after accounting for energy expended from exercise in SE was not different from the energy consumed in the SO condition, suggesting that energy expended via exercise in SE does not appear to negate extra energy consumed in this condition compared with SO. Of interest, desire to eat and prospective food consumption ratings at the start of the trial were greater (p ≤ .029) in SE compared with SO. Findings suggest that restrained-eaters are at risk of adopting compensatory eating behaviour that may impede negative energy balance typically resulting from exercise (i.e. expending insufficient energy to negate compensatory energy intake).

Effects of High-Intensity Intermittent Exercise Training on Appetite Regulation.

OBJECTIVE: An acute bout of high-intensity intermittent exercise suppresses ad libitum energy intake at the postexercise meal. The present study examined the effects of 12 wk of high-intensity intermittent exercise training (HIIT) compared with moderate-intensity continuous exercise training (MICT) on appetite regulation. METHODS: Thirty overweight inactive men (body mass index, 27.2 ± 1.3 kg·m(-2); V˙O2peak, 35.3 ± 5.3 mL·kg(-1)·min(-1) were randomized to either HIIT or MICT (involving 12 wk of training, three sessions per week) or a control group (CON) (n = 10 per group). Ad libitum energy intake from a laboratory test meal was assessed after both a low-energy (847 kJ) and a high-energy preload (2438 kJ) before and after the intervention. Perceived appetite and appetite-related blood variables were also measured. RESULTS: There was no significant effect of the intervention period on energy intake at the test meal after the two different preloads (P ≥ 0.05). However, the 95% confidence interval indicated a clinically meaningful decrease in energy intake after the high-energy preload compared with the low-energy preload in response to HIIT (516 ± 395 kJ decrease), but not for MICT or CON, suggesting improved appetite regulation. This was not associated with alterations in the perception of appetite or the circulating concentration of a number of appetite-related peptides or metabolites, although insulin sensitivity was enhanced with HIIT only (P = 0.003). CONCLUSIONS: HIIT seems to benefit appetite regulation in overweight men. The mechanisms for this remain to be elucidated.

Effects of static stretching in warm-up on repeated sprint performance.

The aim of this study was to examine the effects of static stretching during warm-up on repeated sprint performance and also to assess any influence of the order in which dynamic activities (i.e., run-throughs and drills) and static stretching are conducted. Thirteen male team sport players completed a repeated sprint ability test consisting of three sets of maximal 6 x 20-m sprints (going every 25 seconds) after performing one of three different warm-up protocols in a within-subjects counterbalanced design. Each warm-up protocol involved an initial 1000-m jog, followed by either dynamic activities only (D), static stretching followed by dynamic activities (S-D), or dynamic activities followed by static stretching (D-S). First (FST), best (BST) and total (TST) 20-m sprint times were determined for each individual set of the repeated sprint ability test and overall (3 sets combined). Although consistent significant differences were not observed between trials for TST, BST, and FST, the mean values for TST in all individual sets and overall were generally slowest in the D-S condition (D = 60.264 +/- 1.127 seconds; S-D = 60.347 +/- 1.774 seconds; D-S = 60.830 +/- 1.786 seconds). This trend was supported by moderate to large effect sizes and qualitative indications of "possible" or "likely" benefits for TST, BST, and FST for the D and S-D warm-ups compared to D-S. No significant differences or large effect sizes were noted between D and S-D, indicating similar repeated sprint ability performance. Overall, these results suggest that 20-m repeated sprint ability may be compromised when static stretching is conducted after dynamic activities and immediately prior to performance (D-S).