Weight change patterns in Mexican college student applicants

Abstract

We investigated self‐reported body weight changes and macronutrient intake in applicants to the Universidad Autónoma de San Luis Potosí (UASLP), Mexico. This is a preliminary report on a subset of 346 young applicants (37.6% males, 16 to 20 yrs) with complete data from a Willett FFQ adapted for the Mexican population and self‐reported body weight changes in the year before their college application. Weight and height were measured at the University Health Center and BMI was calculated (kg/m2). According to their BMI, 69% of this subset had normal weight (NW, n=239, 46% females), 20.8% (n=72) were overweight (OW) and 10.1% obese (OB, n= 35). One third of the individuals (33.2%, n=113) reported weight gain in past year and most of them (53.8%), reported a 2 to 5kg gain. Among those who reported weight loss (n=106), 40.2% lost less than 2 kg and 38.2% 2 to 5kg. Few applicants indicated to be on a diet (10.9%), and that was concordant with a reported decrease in their total calorie (p=0.01), protein (p=0.008) and fat intake (p=0.02) in OB individuals compared to NW or OW. There were no differences in reported macronutrient intake among the 3 BMI categories for those that did not report to be on a dietary regime. We emphasize that this data is preliminary and will analyze information in most of the applicants (expected ~8,000) to confirm our observations.