Eating Lunch at the Computer May Make You Feel Hungrier Later On

Snacking while playing computer games or working at the computer is not a good idea. Similarly, having lunch under the same conditions is equally bad, with a recent study coming to prove that those who do so actually feel hungrier faster.

Nutritionists often recommend not snacking mindlessly when in front of the TV, playing a video game or at work at the computer because that can be one of the underlining causes of weight gain or even obesity.

As it turns out, it’s not without good cause they’re saying that: researchers at the University of Bristol have established a clear-cut connection between the feeling of satiety and the amount of distractions during lunch.

They took volunteers and split them into two groups: one had lunch while playing Solitaire (the computer card-sorting game), while the other had a normal launch, with zero distractions.

Members of both groups were served 9 different foods at lunch. No more than 30 minutes later, those in the group that had played Solitaire were already feeling hungry, having got up from the table feeling not quite full.

Oddly enough, they also ate and snacked more than members of the other group – and had more trouble remembering the exact foods they’d eaten, researchers have learned.

“Together, these findings highlight an important role for memory of recent eating and they show that distraction can lead to increased food intake later in the day,” researchers say.

“This study extends these findings by showing how other ‘screen-time activities’ can influence our food intake in unexpected ways. This is important, because it reveals another mechanism by which sedentary screen-time activities might promote obesity,” they explain.

“This work adds to mounting evidence from our lab and others that cognition, and memory and attention in particular, play a role in governing appetite and meal size in humans,” lead researcher Dr. Jeff Brunstrom says.