title: The Impact of Eating and Exercise Frequency on Weight Gain - A Cross-Sectional Study on Medical Undergraduate Students.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Diverse factors influence an individual's ability to successfully achieve and maintain energy balance consistent with a healthy body weight. Eating frequency is one among the varied feature that thought to have a direct impact on the body weight gain.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  The present cross-sectional study has been carried out with the intention of awareness of food habit that specifically emphasize the frequency of eating and its effect on weight gain of an individual.
  
  
  METHODS
  This cross-sectional study involved 265 medical undergraduate students. Faculty validated close ended questionnaire was distributed to the students and the responses given by them were then analysed. Statistical evaluation of data with Spearman correlation coefficient (r) was done.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Among the total 265 participants, 177 (66.8%) were noted to have normal Body Mass Index (BMI 18.5-24.9). Out of them, 113 (64%) found to have eating frequency 3-4 meals/day, 44 (25%) with 1-2 meals/day, 18 (10%) with 5-6 meals/day and 2 (1%) with more than 6 meals/day. Low positive correlation (r=0.09) between mean frequency of eating and the number of subjects with normal BMI was observed.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  An increase in the eating frequency can also be correlated with an increased prevalence of normal BMI individuals provided adequate physical exercise.
authors.affiliation: Senior Grade Lecturer, Department of Anatomy, Melaka Manipal Medical College (Manipal Campus), Manipal University , Manipal, Udupi, Karnataka, India .
authors.forename: Abhinitha
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Padavinangadi
authors.affiliation: Student, Melaka Manipal Medical College (Manipal Campus), Manipal University , Manipal, Udupi, Karnataka, India .
authors.forename: Lee Zi
authors.initials: LZ
authors.lastname: Xuan
authors.affiliation: Student, Melaka Manipal Medical College (Manipal Campus), Manipal University , Manipal, Udupi, Karnataka, India .
authors.forename: Nishalini
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Chandrasekaran
authors.affiliation: Student, Melaka Manipal Medical College (Manipal Campus), Manipal University , Manipal, Udupi, Karnataka, India .
authors.forename: Nursyahirah
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Johari
authors.affiliation: Assistant Professor, Department of Anatomy, Melaka Manipal Medical College (Manipal Campus), Manipal University , Manipal, Udupi, Karnataka, India .
authors.forename: Naveen
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Kumar
authors.affiliation: Assistant Professor, Department of Basic Medical Sciences, College of Applied Medical Sciences, King Khalid University , Abha, Grainger, Saudi Arabia .
authors.forename: Raghu
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Jetti
keywords: Body weight; Disease control; Food frequency; Physical exercise