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A latest research reveals that when food is taken in smaller portions and several times a day, people tend to get full faster and also consume lesser.

The study that was conducted on lab rats and also worked on college students was lead by Devina Wadhera and colleagues at Arizona State University.

"Cutting up energy-dense foods into smaller pieces may be beneficial to dieters who wish to make their meal more satiating while also maintaining portion control," Wadhera says in a news release.

During the study conducted on rats, they were trained to run through a maze. The rats were divided into 2 groups. While one group of 20 rats were given a big chunk of food for running quickly through the maze, another group of 20 rats was rewarded with 30 small pieces of food weighing the same as the large piece offered to the other rats.

After 12 rounds of running through the maze, it was found that the rats preferred the food served in smaller pieces.

In case of college students, the researchers split 301 male and female students into two groups.

While one group was offered a whole bagel covered with cream cheese, the other group was offered the same kind of bagel, cut into four pieces and covered with the same amount of cream cheese, says a report in ajc.com.

It seems the group that got the whole bagel, ate slightly more than those who got it in pieces. The real difference was observed when both the groups were offered free meal after 20 minutes. It was found that the group which ate cut-up pieces of bagel ended up eating lesser of the free meal when compared to the group that ate the whole bagel.

"Perhaps cutting up foods into multiple, bite-sized pieces may perceptually look like more and therefore elicit greater satiation than a single-piece food portion," Wadhera and colleagues suggest.

The study was presented at the annual meeting of the Society for the Study of Ingestive Behavior, held this week in Zurich, Switzerland.