Individual Resting Metabolic Rate and Nutrition Education: Does This Knowledge Lead individuals into Making Healthier Lifestyle Choices?
Introduction: Promoting healthier lifestyle choices to college aged individuals is important since the choices they make during early adult years will affect them later in life. Roughly 27% to 35% of college students are overweight (BMI 25929.9 kg/m2) or obese (BMI >30 kg/m2) and only 20% participate in regular moderate activity. Purpose: The purpose of this study was to examine whether college students make healthier lifestyle choices after receiving information on individual resting metabolic rate and nutrition education. Subjects: Forty Georgia Southern students (20 males and 20 females), between the ages of 19 and 24 years participated in the study. Methods: Self reported anthropometrics were obtained. Participants were randomly assigned to one of four groups; Control, Resting Metabolic Rate (RMR), Education, or Combination. Resting metabolic rate measurements were taken on all subjects at baseline and again at six weeks. The RMR Group and Combination received information on what RMR means, what affects it, and ways to increase it. A nutritional education seminar was given to the Education Group and Combination Group at baseline. A food frequency questionnaire, physical activity questionnaire, and barriers towards exercise scale were given to the participants at baseline, two, four, and six weeks. Results: The Resting Metabolic Rate Group and the Combination Group consumed a significantly higher number of servings of fruits and vegetables (p=.007; p=.002 respectively) than the Control group. The Combination group was also significantly higher than the Education group (p=.036). There were no significant differences for physical activity or barriers towards exercise over the study or between the four different groups. Conclusion: More appropriate interventions need to be developed to help lower the incidence of overweight and obesity in college-aged individuals.
ETD, Resting metabolic rate, Nutrition, College, Physical activity, Exercise barrier
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