Anyone exercising told to smell chocolate before they start

Anyone exercising told to smell chocolate before they start You don't even have to eat chocolate to get an 'energy boost' Chocolate has a surprising power for people who are exercising, according to a new study. Sniffing chocolate could be the answer to boosting performance in the gym, a study suggests. Experts found that smelling chocolate, particularly of the dark variety, led to people being able to do more leg extensions lifting weights, while also curbing feelings of hunger. Writing in the journal Frontiers In Physiology, researchers from the University of Malaya in Kuala Lumpur said familiar and appealing food scents could trigger the psychological shift in appetite needed to boost gym performance. They studied 23 healthy men in their early to mid-20s and divided them into three groups. Each group sniffed one of three odour samples – liquified dark chocolate containing 90% cocoa, liquified milk chocolate containing 60% cocoa, or a water sample that acted as a control for the study. None of the gym-goers had eaten for the previous 10 hours. For the research, they all performed leg extensions, which involves sitting down and extending the lower legs to lift a weight. Leg extension performance was assessed before and during the training, with levels of hunger, fullness, desire to eat, and plans to eat in the near future assessed beforehand. During the sets, hunger and desire to eat were also measured 30 seconds after the odour sample had been sniffed. The results suggested that, compared to the water control and milk chocolate samples, sniffing dark chocolate consistently led to people reporting less hunger, reduced desire and intention to eat, and greater fullness before exercise. However, even those sniffing milk chocolate had beneficial results in performance. Across both types of chocolate, people also did not feel as though they were training harder but managed more exercise repetitions. Senior author Dr Mohamed Nashrudin bin Naharudin said: “Sniffing a 90% dark chocolate odour added about 18 more repetitions to participants’ leg extensions while a 60% milk chocolate odour added about nine repetitions compared to the water control. “Exposing moderately trained men to chocolate odours right before and between sets of resistance exercise significantly increased their overall training volume without increasing their perceived exertion. Seeing a substantial increase in repetitions without the athletes feeling like they were exerting themselves any harder is a fascinating psychobiological outcome.” The researchers suggested the changes in appetite perception could be related to what people learn about smells from a young age. Anticipating a food might have similar effects to when it is actually eaten, they suggested. 'State of fullness' “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,” Dr Nashrudin bin Naharudin said. “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.” Although it has not been tested yet, other appealing foods could also have an effect, the team believes. However, they said more work is needed, including on larger samples.