Can you trick yourself into eating less by splitting a drink into small cups?
Effects of visual deprivation and portion size on food-related perception and behavior
Not medical advice. For informational purposes only. Always consult a healthcare professional. Terms
People were blindfolded or not while drinking a shake, either from one big cup or six small ones. They thought they drank more when blindfolded and using small cups, but actually drank the same amount either way.
No biological mechanisms were identified in this study. This may be an epidemiological, observational, or survey-based study that reports associations rather than proposing causal biological pathways.
Systematic Reviews & Meta-Analyses
Max 100Randomized Controlled Trials
Max 90Cohort Studies
Max 72Case-Control Studies
Max 58Cross-Sectional Studies
Max 44Case Reports & Case Series
Max 30Expert Opinion & Narrative Reviews
Max 555 / 90
Evidence Score
Participants are randomly assigned to treatment or control groups, minimizing bias. Considered the gold standard for testing whether an intervention causes an effect.
Not medical advice. For informational purposes only. Always consult a healthcare professional. Terms
People were blindfolded or not while drinking a shake, either from one big cup or six small ones. They thought they drank more when blindfolded and using small cups, but actually drank the same amount either way.
No biological mechanisms were identified in this study. This may be an epidemiological, observational, or survey-based study that reports associations rather than proposing causal biological pathways.
Systematic Reviews & Meta-Analyses
Max 100Randomized Controlled Trials
Max 90Cohort Studies
Max 72Case-Control Studies
Max 58Cross-Sectional Studies
Max 44Case Reports & Case Series
Max 30Expert Opinion & Narrative Reviews
Max 555 / 90
Evidence Score
Participants are randomly assigned to treatment or control groups, minimizing bias. Considered the gold standard for testing whether an intervention causes an effect.
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Claims (6)
The way liquid meals are presented in different sized cups does not change how much people drink. Whether served in one large cup or divided into several small ones, people consume the same total amount.
For healthy adults, drinking a large or small amount of a liquid meal feels equally filling, even if you can see how much you're drinking. Seeing the portion size or how it's divided doesn't change how full you feel.
When people cannot see how much liquid they are drinking, they often misjudge the amount, especially if it's served in small portions, but this misjudgment does not change how much they actually drink or how full they feel.
When people cannot see their food, they tend to think they drank more if the liquid is poured into many small containers rather than fewer large ones. This overestimation occurs because visual cues help people judge how much they’ve consumed, but they don’t change how much they actually drink.
Changing the size of food portions may affect how full you feel, but this effect depends on whether the food is solid or liquid—portion changes in liquids do not seem to influence fullness, while they do in solids.