The Impact of Physical Activity Levels and Caloric Intake on Weight Thresholds in Young Students

Background: Young college students represent the sustainable future of a community. So their physical, mental wellbeing and development should be one of major concerns. In the present study, students’ weight cut offs have been studied with relation to their Physical Activity Level (PAL) and calorie consumption. Methodology: As per the study, total 285 female students of 18-20 years of age category were randomly selected. A framed questionnaire was distributed to collect data on the daily activity schedules, anthropometry measurements and dietary information. For PAL (Physical Activity Level) assessment, ICMR-NIN RDA report, 2020 has been referred. Result: Reportedly based on WHO BMI cutoffs out of 285 subjects in underweight 41(14.40%), in normal weight 49 (17.20%), overweight 134(47%) and in obese 61(21.40%) cases were observed resulting more cases in overweight section. Whereas 221 subjects (77.55%) were classified under sedentary worker category (PAL= ≤ 1.4), 57 (20%) under moderate worker (PAL= 1.4 to 1.8) and 7 (2.45%) under heavy worker category (PAL=1.8 to 2.3) as per ICMR, NIN, RDA, 2024. So there more subjects were coming under sedentary group. Focusing on calorie consumption patterns, 81 (28.42%) subjects consume below 1800 kilo calories through their daily food intake, 98 subjects (34.38%) have a calorie intake of below 2400 kilocalories and rest 106 (37.20%) consume below 3200 kilocalories. As deduced from statistical analysis the association between PAL and BMI, Calorie consumption and BMI, lastly PAL and calorie consumption, it has showed significant difference in different groups of each categories with the p values 0.0012*, 0.00* and 0.0067* respectively. Conclusion: So the observation of above study results in students’ overweight condition with more inclination towards sedentary lifestyle and heavy calorie intake whereas underweight condition is too associated with low calorie consumption. The study can be further carried out with other forms of Nutritional status assessment methods and then following intervention methods like Nutrition education program