Gender Differences in Estimating Before and After a Meal

Abstract

Objective: To study the effects of plate size on the accuracy of meal size prediction and recall. Theory, Prior Research, Rationale: Prior quasi-experimental studies looking at perception of meal size have found differences in perceptions of meal size across plate size, with gender being a moderating factor. These studies were not done in the presence of an actual meal and could not validate if perceptions of meal size are accurate representations of actual meal size. Study Design, Setting, Participants, and Intervention: Quasi-experimental study of 300 college students eating lunch at a campus restaurant. Outcome,Measures andAnalysis: Students were asked to draw either the meal that they had just purchased or the meal that they had just consumed on 1 of 2 sized plates; a plate that was the same size as was offered at the dining hall and one that was larger. Investigators recorded participant meals in order to compare drawn meal size with actual meal size. Results: Drawn meals on same sized plates preand postmeal were accurate within 5% of actual meal size for both genders. Males given larger plates drew meals more than 10% larger than their actual foods. Females were more accurate than males when given larger plates. Conclusions and Implications: This study validates that students' drawings of meals can be accurate representations of their meals and provides nutrition educators with a new tool for nutritional data gathering. It also suggests that conceptualizations of a meal can be influenced by size of the plate. Gender moderated accuracy of meal reporting. Funding: None.