NCT03731273

Compensation for Smaller Portion Sizes and Portion Size Normality

Compensation for Smaller Portion Sizes and Portion Size Normality: Two Laboratory

• Status: Completed
• Phase: N/A
• Study type: Interventional
• Enrollment: 90 (actual)
• Sponsor: University of Liverpool · Academic / Other
• Sex: All
• Age: 18 Years
• Healthy volunteers: Accepted

Summary

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. The investigators tested the hypothesis that reductions to food portion size will only result in significant compensatory eating when the reduced portion size is no longer visually perceived as 'normal'. In two within-subjects experiments, participants (Study 1: N = 45, M BMI = 26.9; Study 2: N = 37, M BMI = 26.9; 51% female) were served different sized portions of a lunchtime meal on three occasions: a 'large-normal', a 'small-normal', and a 'smaller than normal' portion. Both the reduction from 'large-normal' to 'small-normal' and from 'small-normal' to 'smaller than normal' portions represented the same change in food volume and energy content (84g, 77kcal Study 1; 98g, 117kcal Study 2). Participants were able to serve themselves additional helpings of the same food (Study 1), or dessert items (Study 2).

Conditions

• Portion Size

Interventions

Type	Name	Description
BEHAVIORAL	portion size	Smaller than normal portion size - the intervention is the meal size perceived as 'smaller than normal' that participants are provided with during a lunchtime session in the laboratory. 'Small-normal' portion size - the intervention is the meal size perceived as 'small normal' that participants are provided with during a lunchtime session in the laboratory. 'Large normal' portion size - the intervention is the meal size perceived as 'large normal' that participants are provided with during a lunchtime session in the laboratory.

Timeline

• Start date: 2016-10-04
• Primary completion: 2017-07-25
• Completion: 2017-07-25
• First posted: 2018-11-06
• Last updated: 2018-11-06

Locations

1 site across 1 country: United Kingdom