Chocolate Aroma May Enhance Exercise Performance and Reduce Appetite

Smelling chocolate before and during resistance exercise may help individuals complete more repetitions without increased perceived effort. This finding comes from a new study published in *Frontiers in Physiology*. Researchers suggest that familiar food aromas could influence motivation and appetite by prompting the brain to anticipate eating.

Mohamed Nashrudin bin Naharudin, an assistant professor at the Faculty of Sports and Exercise Science at the University of Malaya, stated that chocolate odors significantly increased training volume without increasing perceived exertion in moderately trained men. This substantial increase in repetitions without the athletes feeling more challenged is a notable psychobiological outcome.

The study involved 23 healthy men in their early to mid-20s. Participants were divided into three groups. Each group was exposed to one of three samples: liquified dark chocolate with 90% cocoa, liquified milk chocolate with 60% cocoa, or water as a control. Participants had fasted for at least ten hours before the exercise session.

Participants performed leg extensions. Researchers measured their performance before and during the training session. They also rated their hunger, fullness, desire to eat, and intention to eat. During sets, hunger and desire to eat were measured after each 30-second exposure to a scent.

Dark chocolate aroma was associated with lower hunger, less desire and intention to eat, and greater feelings of fullness before exercise. Milk chocolate aroma was rated as more pleasant but did not significantly alter hunger or appetite. Sniffing dark chocolate odor added about 18 repetitions to leg extensions. Milk chocolate odor added about nine repetitions compared to the water control.

The researchers hypothesize that learned associations with food explain these results. Aromas can become signals that lead the brain and body to anticipate what typically follows food consumption. The dark chocolate scent may act as a cue for a satiating food, tricking the system into an anticipatory state of fullness. The sweeter milk chocolate scent might act as a hedonic reward cue, enhancing training volume through a pleasant sensory environment.