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Maintenance of healthy lifestyle among urban college students
Author(s) -
Seng ChanChi,
Ho Charlene C,
Ho YenKuang
Publication year - 2006
Publication title -
the faseb journal
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.709
H-Index - 277
eISSN - 1530-6860
pISSN - 0892-6638
DOI - 10.1096/fasebj.20.5.a1010-a
Subject(s) - pedometer , obesity , calorie , medicine , population , demography , energy expenditure , physical activity , environmental health , gerontology , zoology , physical therapy , biology , sociology
The rate of obesity has been steadily rising in the United States. To evaluate the health conscientiousness among a cross‐sectional population dwelling in an urban environment, students enrolled in “Human Biology” at City College San Francisco, California (CCSF) participated in a study to determine maintenance of a healthy weight by balancing food energy intake and exercise energy output. The students recorded and entered a 7 d food dairy into a diet analysis program for food composition analysis (Diet analysis +, ESHED). In addition, a physical activity journal was kept for 7 d in conjunction with wearing a pedometer (Omron, HJ‐105) which recorded the number of steps. The characteristics of the study population (n = 135; males 39%, female 61%) consisted of an average BMI 25.27 (kg/m2) and 22.45 (kg/m2) for males and females, respectively. The male group pedometer results showed an average of 8108 steps/day while female students recorded 8375 steps/day. On average, male and female students showed 10.22% and 15.27% of total energy output attributed to activity recorded on the pedometer. The female group spent 5% more kilocalories in walking than male group. Energy intake for the study population was reported an average of 2292 kcal for males, 2114 kcal for females. The urban students’ maintenance of lifestyle is reported to reduce energy from food intake rather than increase energy output from physical activity.