Eating less when with men: really?

[shootingstar]

So says this study on eating habits of women when they are dining with a man/men. Presumably this is for a dating situation or at a party which includes men?

Honestly, I never ate less nor tended towards food dishes that looked like less calories (salads) when I was dating. My food selection and consumption did not change in presence of a guy(s) or gal(s). Maybe I was not a normal woman. If I had a nice evening, it usually meant I also had a good /tasty meal also.

http://www.nationalpost.com/news/story.html?id=1863489

Women Eat Less When Dining with Men

What happens when men and women sit down for dinner? According to the results of a Canadian study released this week, women eat much less around men than they do around other women, and alone.
The lead researcher of the study said men acted as "negative predictors" of behaviour, meaning that the more men a woman was eating with, the less she ate.
"Women joke around about having a salad on a first date instead of a bowl of pasta," said Meredith Young, who holds a PhD from McMaster University's psychology, neuroscience and behaviour department. "You can be judged more or less attractive, more or less feminine, more or less desirable depending on what you eat."
The study will be published in an upcoming issue of the food journal Appetite, and was published in the online research journal this week.
Observing more than 460 students in three cafeterias at McMaster University, the study concluded that men weren't affected by their dining companions.
"When more and more women get together, the caloric count seems to increase. But men, nothing really affected them at all," she said.
Women, on the other hand, changed their behaviour drastically in the presence of even one man.
The study found that women dining with one other woman ate an average of 670 calories worth of food during their meal, and women eating with up to three other women ate 750 calories.
Eating with a man had women consuming an average of just 540 calories, and eating with a group of men drew the lowest result, with the average consumption at 450 calories for the women involved.
National Post

[roadie gal]

I would think the women picked salad over pasta because you're less likely to "splooch" yourself with salad. I never ate less on a date with a guy (or gal for that matter) but I did pick food that I would be less likely to get all over myself or stuck in my teeth.

[sfa]

Sounds like it's NOT a dating situation since the calories go down the more men there are (maybe a really wild date?).

I suspect I do the opposite, though. I will fully admit to being a social conformer when it comes to food--I listen to what other people are ordering or see what others are putting on their plates and base my eating on that. And it seems like when I'm with "the guys" there's a lot of burgers and sandwiches and beer, but when I eat with my office (all women currently) it's all salads and diet soda. I gained a lot of weight in my last job when I spent a lot of time hanging out with the (mostly male) IT department. I've lost all that weight since switching jobs (having a gym on campus helps too!).

Sarah

[indigoiis]

They obviously didn't poll or interview any TE girls.

[OakLeaf]

They obviously didn't interview too many athletes of any kind, if the highest average calories in a dinner was 750 calories. I'd starve! (and I'm far from a "real" athlete )

[Becky]

They obviously didn't poll or interview any TE girls.

Seriously! My calorie consumption is legendary around my (male-dominated) office

[Biciclista]

here too. If I eat less around men,it's because they ate my share before I could. I raised two sons and ate every meal for years with 3 men/boys, why would i eat less in front of them?
They should do a separate study on athletes!