Does delay discounting predict weight gain during the first year of university

Introduction: Overweight (BMI>25) and obesity (BMI>30) are amongst the most important public health problems (WHO, 2001). They pose a major threat to people’s health and life satisfaction (Roberts & Duong, 2013). Although many people try to change their behavior by following a diet, eating less, eating healthier and exercising more, they have a hard time adhering to these changes (Kloosterman, 2023). Given the difficulty of losing weight it is important to prevent weight gain and thus to understand what factors are predictive of weight gain. One factor proposed to be predictive of future weight gain is delay discounting - the tendency to reduce the value of a reward as a function of how long one has to wait to receive it - (Bickel et al., 2021). One can imagine that if people tend to discount future rewards such as a healthy lifestyle or feeling fit and healthy, they would be more likely to give into the temptation of food in their environment (immediate reward). Given that the first year of university is a particularly vulnerable time for weight gain due to decreased diet quality and physical activity and increased stress (Alberga et al., 2012), the current study examined whether delay discounting is predictive of weight gain during the first year of university. Method: At baseline 173 female first year participants were included. The study consisted of 5 timepoints between September 2024 and June 2025 during which participants’ weight was measured wearing standardized clothing. Furthermore they answered the Monetary Choice Questionnaire (MCQ; Kirby et al., 1999) which assesses delay discounting at baseline. Results: As data collection is currently ongoing no results can be reported yet. However, by the time the conference takes place the last data round will be finished and all results can be discussed during the presentation.