Ate a whole large pizza but want one last slice? We’ve all been there – stomach feeling full but craving still lingering on. What stops is the common notion that overeating may make us sick later. Well, may not! A surprising revelation by a study claims that our food coping mechanism may be much higher than we realize; meaning – there might be some room for more of that yummy pizza. Researchers at the Centre for Nutrition, Exercise and Metabolism at the University of Bath carried out a study to ascertain how much we can really eat? The result concluded that young people can eat twice as much food as they need to feel ‘full’.

The team of researchers evaluated the effects of normal eating against maximal eating (till you feel completely full). They investigated endocrine, appetite and mood responses to a maximal eating process in fourteen men of an average age of 28 with body mass of about 77kg. On each occasion, participants ate a mixed-macronutrient meal (pizza). On one occasion, they ate until ‘comfortably full’ (ad libitum) and on the other, until they ‘could not eat another bite’ (maximal). Mean energy intake was double in the maximal as compared to the ad libitum trial.

The researchers discovered that post maximal eating, blood sugar (glucose) levels were almost the same than after a normal meal, though the amount of insulin in the blood was 50% higher than normal. The findings were published in the ‘British Journal of Nutrition’.

Corresponding author, professor James A. Betts commented, “There were marked differences on appetite and mood between trials, most notably maximal eating caused a prolonged increase in lethargy. Healthy men have the capacity to eat twice the energy content required to achieve comfortable fullness at a single meal.”

The researchers concluded that occasional over-indulgence brings no immediate harm to bodily health; however, they also warned that continual habit of overeating may be harmful.