Why Eating With a Fork Versus A Spoon Can Aid Weight Loss

Even cutlery can unconsciously affect eating behaviour and weight loss.

People eat less when using a fork than when using a spoon, new research finds.

When eating with spoons, though, people assume the food has a lower amount of calories.

The reason why is fascinating.

Scientists had people eating bite-size pieces of food, such as chocolate cake.

They were asked to eat it either with a spoon or a fork.

Afterwards they estimated how many calories it had, how tasty it was and how much more they’d like to eat.

The results showed that when eating with spoons, people taste the food more gradually.

This leads them to think that each bite is smaller…

…and so they eat more.

So, to help weight loss goals, better to stick to the fork.

The study was published in the Journal of the Association for Consumer Research (Szocs & Biswas, 2016).

Forks image from Shutterstock