A Surprising Tool Could Help You Eat More Slowly

If you tend to be a speed-eater, it’s not your fault. From the time we’re school kids, we’re given only so much time to eat—and usually not enough. And once you make it to adulthood, making time to slow down and enjoy a healthy, balanced meal isn’t always possible. Plenty of folks end up eating lunch in a few bites while working, then scarfing down a quick dinner before bed when they get home.

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But could eating quickly affect our health? There is evidence that what scientists refer to as “abnormal eating behavior” is associated with obesity. For example, research suggests that people who eat quickly—and therefore, have shorter meal durations—are at a higher risk of developing obesity. That’s in part because people who eat fast tend to eat more. And we know that eating more calories than we need gets stored in our bodies as fat. 

Researchers in Japan wanted to see if eating to a tempo could influence how quickly people chewed and ultimately how quickly—or slowly—they ate. They tested several factors as they relate to meal duration, including the number of chews and bites and eating tempo. They published their findings in March 2025 in Nutrients. Let’s break down their findings.

How Was This Study Conducted?

Participants were recruited from a medical school in Japan and included a total of 33 healthy students, faculty and staff—15 men and 18 women. Their ages ranged from 20 to 65, with the average age being 37. Participants had no underlying medical conditions. 

For baseline data, researchers had participants fill out the BDHQ, a self-administered dietary history questionnaire that asks about the intake frequency of 46 food and nonalcoholic beverage items. The questionnaire also includes items like daily intake of rice (including type of rice) and miso soup, frequency and amount of alcoholic beverages, usual cooking methods and general dietary behavior. 

Participants also did a couple of tests of strength, including the handgrip strength test—a simple test often used in research to estimate upper body strength—and the five-times sit-to-stand test—an indicator of lower body strength. BMI was also calculated.

Because researchers wanted to measure the number of bites and chews and chewing tempo, they used a device called the Bitescan, which sat behind the participant’s ear and tracked bites and chewing pace. Meal duration was measured with a stopwatch.

Participants wore headphones to reduce distractions throughout the experiment, which was done in stages. 

• Stage 1: Participants ate ¼ slice of pizza while meal duration, number of chews, average eating tempo and number of bites were measured. 
• Stage 2: One minute after the completion of stage 1, participants were instructed to eat another ¼ slice of pizza at a metronome tempo of 40 beats per minute.
• Stage 3: Thirty seconds after ending stage 2, the third ¼ slice of pizza was eaten to a metronome tempo of 80 bpm.
• Stage 4: Thirty seconds after ending stage 3, the final ¼ slice of pizza was consumed, this time to a metronome tempo of 160 bpm.

What Did This Study Show?

The primary findings of this experiment included: 

• Female participants tend to eat more slowly than males, taking more bites and chews, but chewing tempo and total amount of nutrients, including calories, were about the same between males and females.
• Meal duration was significantly associated with the number of chews and bites, but not the average chewing tempo (without the metronome).
• While chewing to the metronome, 40 bpm slowed the chewing tempo down the most compared to when no metronome was used, but mostly for the female participants. 
• Regardless of sex, meal duration was prolonged at all metronome tempos—40, 80 and 160 bpm, with 40 bpm having the greatest impact.
• The number of bites increased for females at 40 bpm but not at the other tempos.

Overall, researchers found that at 40 bpm, there was an increase in meal duration, an increase in the number of chews, a decrease in eating tempo and an increase in the number of bites. At 160 bpm, chewing tempo, meal duration and number of chews changed significantly, but not as significantly as the number of bites did. 

Researchers concluded that, based on this study, increasing the number of bites and chews and eating to a slower rhythm may help increase meal duration—and ultimately help people eat less. 

Like all studies, this one has some limitations worth keeping in mind. The sample size of this study included just 33 participants, which is very small and makes it difficult to say that the results apply to a large majority of people. The researchers did not randomly assign participants to different conditions (i.e. a control group with no metronome to compare with a group that used the metronome to set tempo). Randomized controlled trials are known as the gold standard in research, and they tend to be more accurate.

How Does This Apply to Real Life?

Previous studies have also shown a connection between speed of eating, meal duration and amount of food eaten. While this study used a metronome, music with a slower tempo has also been shown to influence eating behavior. For example, one study showed that people who ate to slow-tempo music were more relaxed, spent more time eating and chewed more times and for longer than those who listened to fast-tempo music. So put your metronome away and create a dining music list with slower, relaxing music to play during mealtimes. If music with lyrics is distracting for you, choose spa-like music with just instrumentals. 

Tempo and music aren’t the only strategies for slowing down your eating speed, though. There is also evidence that eating foods with more texture that require more chewing can also influence how fast—and ultimately, how much—you eat, since eating more slowly has been connected to eating less.

All these results support the idea of eating mindfully and intuitively—including eating more slowly and paying attention to how the food smells, tastes and feels in your mouth. Mindful eating and intuitive eating also encourage people to pay attention to and honor hunger and fullness cues, reduce distractions when you’re eating (turn off the devices), sit down while eating and take the time to enjoy your food. 

If it’s difficult for you to find the time to prepare healthy, delicious meals, let alone sit down to enjoy them, check out some of our favorite 30-minute healthy meals or this month-long plan of quick plant-based dinners. Want to have dinner ready for when everyone gets home? Then you might want to try one of our high-protein slow-cooker dinners. Before long, you’ll be a pro at meal prep and cooking fast, healthy meals, giving you more time to sit and enjoy them. 

The Bottom Line

A new study adds to the mounting evidence that increasing the number of bites and chews and eating to a slower rhythm may help increase meal duration. These factors have been linked with eating less. You can slow the speed at which you eat by playing calm, relaxing music and eating foods that require more chewing. 

An added benefit to eating slower in a relaxed environment and chewing your food more is that it makes it easier for your gut to properly digest it—it doesn’t have to work as hard to break it down if you start off doing more of that work in your mouth. When you can, try to make dinnertime relaxing. Turn off your devices, put on some tunes and take your time.