Sniffing Chocolate Could Boost Your Leg Day Workouts and Curb Hunger

July 11, 2026

The smell of dark chocolate might help you get a few more reps on leg day at the gym.

New research suggests that simply inhaling the aroma before and during a workout could help people improve exercise performance without taking a single bite of chocolate.

In an exploratory study published in Frontiers in Physiology, researchers found that healthy young men completed significantly more repetitions during a leg-extension workout after smelling 90% dark chocolate than after smelling water, the experiment’s control. Participants exposed to the dark chocolate scent also reported feeling less hungry and fuller.

A milk chocolate scent also improved performance, though to a lesser extent, and appeared to produce a different psychological response.

The study adds to a growing body of research suggesting that odors may influence athletic performance through complex interactions between the brain, appetite, and perception.

“Their findings, showing greater improvements in performance with dark chocolate, align well with other findings in the literature, where lower appetite and higher fullness are associated with better performance,” said Marie-Eve Mathieu, PhD, Canada Research Chair, physical activity and juvenile obesity, at Université de Montréal. Mathieu wasn’t involved in the research. healthline