Have you ever wondered why you reach for a snack after hitting the gym?
Research shows that exercise often leads to increased food consumption, whether it’s treating yourself to a job well done or replenishing the energy you’ve burned.
With countless sporting events being broadcast and our screens constantly filled with sporting competitions, a new question arises: can watching sport on a screen also influence how much we eat?
The answer is yes. Our research, co-authored with Jannine Lasaleta, shows that watching sports videos can increase candy consumption. But there’s more to the story: the difficulty of the sports you watch plays a crucial role in these effects.
From screens to junk food
We first invited 112 students to the experimental laboratory of the Grenoble Ecole de Management to watch a video and test some sweets. Half of the students watched a video of men and women exercising, while the other half watched one without any physical activity.
We then gave each student a 70-gram cup of candy and asked them to rate its quality for three minutes. The students who saw the exercise video ate more sweets than those who saw the video without physical activity.
So our first test showed that watching sports videos can boost candy consumption, but here’s the twist: male students ate a lot more candy than female students, so perhaps the results were driven by men’s consumption. Moreover, we still weren’t sure whether the type of sport we watched influenced candy intake.
To learn more, we invited only the female students to watch videos depicting easy (light running) or difficult sports (long jump athletics, gymnastics, baseball, rugby, or rock climbing). Then the students were invited to test the same candies as before.
Students who watched the easy sports video (in which a woman and a man run through different landscapes) ate much more candy (30.1 grams) than those who watched the difficult sports video (18 grams).
We can therefore conclude that the ease or difficulty of the exercise shown has a significant influence on candy consumption: watching easy-to-perform sports leads to a significantly higher candy intake than watching difficult sports.
Why does this happen?
To explain our findings, we looked to research on goal motivation. When people feel like they are not achieving a goal, they push harder; but once they see progress, they tend to slack off.
For example, after a workout, those who want to stay fit may feel like they have made good progress and then reduce their efforts. This can lead to a decrease in motivation to pursue related goals, such as healthy eating.
Research shows that achieving smaller goals (like exercising) can make people feel like they’ve earned a break, which can lead to them enjoying food more. If you complete a workout, you’re more likely to reward yourself with extra food than if you hadn’t completed your session.
And why are women more sensitive to the phenomenon of eating more sweets after watching an easy-to-play sports video? Simply because it has long been shown that women are more concerned about their weight than men and therefore their diet goals are more noticeable.
Our research shows that just watching sports can lead to a sense of vicarious fulfillment of fitness goals. When people can imagine themselves doing the activity they’re watching, they feel like they’ve already gotten some exercise, which can lead to more delicious food choices.
If they perceive the exercise shown as easy rather than difficult, they can more easily imagine themselves doing it, leading to a greater sense of progress toward their fitness goals. This perceived achievement can make them feel like they have earned the right to satisfy and influence their search for a reward, often resulting in increased food intake.
So?
This knowledge can be used by policy makers or marketers who want to encourage a healthy lifestyle. When healthy activities are promoted by presenting physical activity that seems too easy, people may experience a greater sense of achievement, which can backfire and lead to higher consumption.
We recommend a simple exercise (such as walking or jogging) followed by a more vigorous exercise (such as sprinting or marathon running) as an alternative solution.
This approach can motivate people to start basic exercises while reminding them that there is still a long way to go to achieve their fitness goals. This strategy could provide an alternative to promote physical activity without giving a false sense of satisfaction.
So what’s the takeaway for us? Keep in mind that watching sports can influence our eating habits. If you want to stick to your diet, look into more challenging sports – it can help you resist that extra bar of chocolate.
Additionally, when setting diet goals, remind yourself that real progress comes from consistent effort, not just imagining you’re working out. Participate in activities that really challenge you and combine them with conscious eating habits. This way you can avoid the pitfall of feeling like you’ve reached your fitness goal prematurely and then overindulging.
In short, should you watch the Olympics if you want to stay on top of your diet? Of course, but it might be better to choose the physical activities that you find most difficult to perform – and view them without moderation.
Birau Mia, Associate Professor of Marketing, EM Lyon Business School and Carolina OC Werle, Professor of Marketing, Grenoble École de Management (GEM)
This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.