How scrolling during your meals may influence your weight: 1 personal tip for mindful eating

How scrolling during your meals may influence your weight: 1 personal tip for mindful eating

You just sat down for lunch, and you’re hungry. 

You’ve been hitting the gym more consistently and have been eating more consciously, but you’ve noticed you’ve been trying to stop yourself from reaching for more snacks in the cupboard between meals.

Wait! Just before you start, you realize you forgot your phone. You grab it, then sit back down to scroll on social media while you eat. You then finish your meal, clean-up, and head back into your day. 

Less than an hour later, you feel an urge to snack on something. It’s hard to resist, so you give in. When eating dinner later, you find yourself feeling even hungrier despite having a big lunch and an extra snack. You know you’ve been eating more than enough, but what’s going on? 

Does this sound like you? If so, you’re not alone. As of 2026 according to DemandSage, 5.78 billion people own smartphones (70% of the world!), and it’s increasingly common to use digital devices during mealtimes in our modern lifestyle. Smartphones are currently one of the most widely used types during meals, but their influence on eating behaviour has had few studies investigating these effects. 

However, there’s a growing body of research that smartphone use during meals:

  • Increases your calorie & fat intake during your meal 
  • Disrupts your body’s metabolic response after your meal 

By keeping your attention away from your food, this can interfere with your memory of your meal along with physiological signals of hunger and satiety. In one study, they found that smartphone usage led to a ~15% increase in calorie intake compared to no distractions. Not only that, they found that variations were dependent on sex. Women were found to consume more fats in general for meals (no distractions and smartphone use) while older adults and men ate more calories in total. 

If you know you eat enough but struggle with food urges, try this tip below: 

Eat without distractions. Try to focus just on your meal without your phone, TV, podcast, etc. Try to leave all other thoughts behind and to sit mentally with your food for a moment. Savouring the taste, chewing thoroughly, and practicing gratitude for your meal can be ways to help with this. 


References:

  1.  Kumar, N. (2026, March 2). Smartphone user statistics 2026 (worldwide data). DemandSage. https://www.demandsage.com/smartphone-usage-statistics/

  2. Aslam, M. S. (2025). Exploring the impact of mobile device use on mealtime distractions and its consequences for metabolic health: A narrative minireview. World Journal of Clinical Cases, 13(17), 99924. https://doi.org/10.12998/wjcc.v13.i17.99924

  3. Gonçalves, R. F. da M., Barreto, D. de A., Monteiro, P. I., Zangeronimo, M. G., Castelo, P. M., van der Bilt, A., & Pereira, L. J. (2019). Smartphone use while eating increases caloric ingestion. Physiology & Behavior, 204, 93–99. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.physbeh.2019.02.021

Back to blog