A new study has found that smelling chocolate during a workout could help people complete more repetitions without making exercise feel any harder.
Researchers at the University of Malaya found that participants exposed to chocolate aromas before and during resistance training were able to perform more leg extensions than those who were not exposed to the scents.
The study, published in September 2026 in the journal Frontiers in Physiology, examined whether the smell of chocolate could influence appetite and exercise performance, even when participants had not eaten anything.
Article continues after ad
Smelling dark chocolate helped participants complete 18 more reps
The study included 23 healthy men in their early to mid-20s with moderate resistance training experience.
Participants were divided into three groups and exposed to either dark chocolate containing 90% cocoa, milk chocolate containing 60% cocoa, or odorless water.
After fasting for at least 10 hours, they performed leg extensions while researchers monitored their performance, hunger levels, and perceived effort.
The results showed that participants exposed to dark chocolate completed approximately 18 more repetitions than those in the water control condition. Those exposed to milk chocolate completed around nine additional repetitions.
Article continues after ad
Article continues after ad
Despite completing more repetitions, participants did not report feeling like they were working any harder.
Unsplash: victorfreitas
“Seeing a substantial increase in repetitions without the athletes feeling like they were exerting themselves any harder is a fascinating psychobiological outcome,” said senior author Dr. Mohamed Nashrudin bin Naharudin.
Researchers also found that smelling dark chocolate reduced feelings of hunger and increased fullness before exercise. Milk chocolate, meanwhile, was rated as the more pleasant smell but did not significantly affect appetite.
Article continues after ad
The researchers believe the results could be connected to how the brain associates familiar food smells with eating.
“The dark chocolate scent serves as a learned cue for a rich, bitter, and highly satiating food, which essentially tricks the system into an anticipatory state of fullness,” Nashrudin Naharudin explained.
However, the researchers stressed that the findings are preliminary. The study involved only 23 young men, and researchers did not measure hormone levels or brain activity to determine exactly why the aromas affected performance.
Article continues after ad
Article continues after ad
It also remains unclear whether chocolate is unique in producing these effects or whether other familiar food smells could have similar results.
“We don’t think chocolate is entirely unique, though it is a food cue with incredibly strong, universally recognized reward associations,” Nashrudin Naharudin said.
Further research involving larger and more diverse groups will be needed to determine whether smelling chocolate could offer a practical benefit during workouts.
The findings follow another study published earlier in 2026 that found lifting weights for just 90 minutes to two hours per week was associated with a 13% lower risk of early death.
Article continues after ad
That research, which followed more than 147,000 adults for up to 30 years, also found that combining weight training with aerobic exercise was associated with an even greater reduction in mortality risk.