Predicting Weight Gain in Young Adults

Abstract

Two brief longitudinal studies were conducted to develop a model to predict weight gain among young adults. Predictor variables were derived from set point, externality, and activity theories of obesity. The weights of college students (109 men and 127 women in Study 1; 24 women in Study 2) were monitored over a 3- to 4-mo. period. Measures of eating restraint, externality, and self-reported activity were generally unrelated to weight gain, although eating restraint was positively related to weight gain for men (33% of the male sample) who dropped out of the study before the final weigh-in. Discussion focused on the extremely high test-retest correlations of weight and on the relatively high dropout rare among men, two factors which mitigated against the present development of a predictive model of weight gain.