Go to any restaurant and look around… You might see a group of women for a ladies night out, maybe a few couples here and there out on dates, and maybe there’s a group of guys grabbing a bite to eat while catching the game on the large screen TVs. If you were to take these situations, women dining with other women, women dining with a guy, and guys dining together; who do you think is getting the least amount calories?
This may not be all that surprising, but it’s the women dining with dudes.
According to a study recently published in the Journal of Applied Social Psychology, when women dine with other women they ended up eating an average of 833 calories, but when they dined with a dude, they averaged about 721 calories.
I suppose this sort of makes sense, especially if it’s a “date” situation. The woman is going to be more conscious of what she is ordering… or as the study suggests it may even be more of a subconscious thing. The study authors said there was possibly some sort of unconscious scripts at work here, dictating their eating patterns based on who they were with at the time. There’s also been some theories out there I guess that these sort of expected behaviors may even be behind some cases of eating disorders… the whole social norms thing and all.
But you know what may have been the more surprising aspect of this study…
When the dudes were dining with women, they ate an average of 1162 calories, but when they were hanging out with other dudes, they ate an average of 952 calories.
The study again mentions some of the subconscious stuff behind expected societal norms and all that… The dude needs to appear to be the protector and all that, but you’d still think it would be the other way around with guys sort of cutting loose when they’re with each other.
So yea, I realize that be it 721 or 952, that’s a still a heck of a lot of calories for a single dining experience…. no matter who you’re with. But it does seem that no matter if you’re a dude or a chick, it sounds like if your going to dine out and want to stick to your eating plan, you’re better off dining with a dude.
And if you’re looking for someone to take out with you to help prove this… just let me know.
Check out the story on NPR (with audio too), they have links to the more on the study as well.
