Ordering from a heavy waiter may influence you to get more food, a new study finds.

Researchers from the Cornell Food and Brand Lab studied 497 diners in 60 restaurants shows that diners who ordered their dinner from heavier wait staff were four times more likely to order dessert, and they also ordered 17 percent more alcohol.

They observed 497 diners ordering in dinner in casual American restaurants -- like Applebee's and TGI-Friday's, and then compared these orders to the Body Mass Index (BMI) of the person who waited on them as well as the size of diner.

They found that the heavier the waiter, the more food the diners ordered, and this was especially true in the case of desserts and alcoholic beverages. Also, interestingly, whether the server was heavy seemed to have the biggest influence of the diners that were the skinniest, says Tim Doering, the lead author of the study, which appears in Environment & Behavior.   

Previous studies have found that lighting, music, and even where you sit can unknowingly bias what you order, so now the size of the waiter can be added to that list, said Doering.  “We are tremendously susceptible to cues that give us a license to order and eat what we want, and a fun, happy, heavy waiter, might lead a diner to say 'What the heck' and to cut loose a little,'” he added.