back to article US college girls: Fatter roomie helps control 1st-year plumpening

In a groundbreaking study, American researchers reveal that all US college girls tend to find their clothes fitting tighter in their first year as they gain weight. However, in a shock finding, it seems that those who are assigned a plump roommate will embulgen themselves less than those who find themselves living with a skinny …

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  1. Jimmy Floyd
    Pint

    Repulsion?

    When my friends went off to University and came back with noticeable beer-bellies, the effect on me as I became a student a year later was to make damn sure I didn't. And I didn't.

    So it might also be the effect of deciding "I don't want that to happen to me!".

    1. Paul Crawford Silver badge

      @Repulsion?

      That could be a factor as well. However, I would like to put my name down to study the "embulgen" factor for American female students in more detail. Please? Pretty please?

  2. Anonymous Coward
    Joke

    The quote is wrong, surely?

    "This finding seems counterintuitive, but there are some good explanations for why it may be happening," said Kandice Kapinos, a sociologist involved in the study.

    "It's not really the weight of your roommate that's important, but the behaviors your roommate engages in. If you have a tubby room mate for example, they are far more likely to steal your food when you're not looking. It's this kind of behaviour which will help others keep their weight down."

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Happy

      Damn you!

      Beat me to it.

    2. Anonymous Coward
      Troll

      Apparently...

      ...there's one fat person who can't take a joke.

  3. Dave White
    Stop

    What?

    I've been reading the reg for many years now, and commented about three times. Once was in response to something I felt strongly enough to get off my arse and actually write out a comment.

    The second was within the last week, and the last is now. What the hell is it with the increasingly irrelevant stories about crap that have nothing to do with IT? I can understand a segue into something related, and indeed encourage it. However, this has nothing at all to do with anything even remotely connected with the reason we read el reg.

    Please stop with this bullshit.

    1. Chris Miller
      Happy

      Did the title mislead you

      into thinking there was an IT angle? (And its presence in Bootnotes provides an additional clue). If you don't want to read the occasional, tongue-in-cheek, vaguely sciency article - then don't read it. Simples.

      Now awaiting the arrival of the moderatrix ...

    2. Bluewhelk
      Go

      Re: What?

      It's filed under "Biology" so no IT connection required.

      In any case I kinda like these odd off the wall reports, keep up the good work guys.

    3. Anonymous Coward
      WTF?

      @Dave White

      Nobody's forcing you to read every article.

      Or whine like a spoilt little bitch for that matter.

      1. Vladimir Plouzhnikov

        IT angle

        You're reading it on a computer, are you not?

    4. Elmer Phud
      Boffin

      missed it?

      You moan and complain when Lewis comes up with "embulgen "?

      Pah and thrice pah!

    5. Anonymous John
      Unhappy

      Sarah!!

      It's another commentard complaining about the lack of an IT connection.

    6. Tony S

      @Dave

      Calm down now.

      I've also been reading El Reg for many a year - and at no time have I ever been forced to read an article. You can choose not to read something if it doesn't seem to be appropriate.l I've also just taken a quick look at the front page and there are plenty of tech articles to get you excited - having one bit of fun doesn't seem excessive.

      Plus there are a few of us where articles about US colleges girls are the closest we will get to the opposite gender!

    7. Anonymous Coward
      Thumb Down

      Aha

      Unlucky 13th thumbs down from me....

      This is highly relevant to IT. If all USian women turn into porkers with stubby fat fingers, then they will require much larger keys on their keyboards to enable them to communicate on the interwebs.

    8. Loyal Commenter Silver badge
      FAIL

      I, too have been reading El Reg for many years now

      And have noticed the increasing number of whiney bastards complaining about 'Bootnotes' stories not having anything to do with IT. You didn't HAVE to click on that link, did you?

    9. peyton?
      Dead Vulture

      Here you go Dave

      You forgot your icon - the one that says you've deleted The Register from your bookmarks and won't be returning.

    10. hplasm
      FAIL

      Third posting, you say?

      Try Try Try again.

      Then if it's still crap, give up.

      Check your replies- then give up....

    11. Anonymous Coward
      Thumb Down

      God-like

      Look the IT Angle (R) is like God. If it doesn't appear in an article you have to invent it. Those are the rules and if you aren't happy go and read zdnet, or some other equally dull and worth web-tome.

    12. Tom Maddox Silver badge
      Stop

      Interesting

      The title bar of my browser tab says "Sci/Tech News for the World." This is about biology, hence science. Go rock yourself to sleep, now.

    13. Anonymous Coward
      Happy

      Dear Dave,

      ODFO

      That is all!

  4. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    So

    And correct me if I've misunderstood.

    If you put a thin girl and a larger girl in the same room.

    The thin one puts on half a pound

    The other one puts on a two and half pounds

    so the headline could be

    "US college girls: thinner roomie makes cohabitee fat"

    Where alternate mechanisms such as

    1) comfort eating as compensation for being outshone by thin pretty blonde

    2) she got to the crisps first

    considered?

  5. Matt 13
    Paris Hilton

    simple reasoning....

    the reason why wone room mate gets larger, while the other slimmer is easy....

    Observer the following scenario...

    Fat & thin do the grocery shopping...

    Thin goes out for a typical thin girls night out, ie, lots of booze, sex and drugs = physical movement, sweating and vomiting - all great ways of keeping weight down!!

    Thin arrives back home sometime the next mid afternoon and heads to the kitchen... on the way avoiding Fat who has been playing WOW all day/night/day...

    Thin makes it finally into the cupboards only to find that the groceries have been converted into a thick layer of crumbs and wrappers on and around FAT...

    Fat & Thin then go out grocery shopping

    Thin goes out for a typical thin girls night out................................. the cycle continues........

    Paris - as thin girls have more co.... er... fun!!!!

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Happy

      Good one

      Please clean my monitor now.

  6. Psmiffy
    Pint

    Lewis Page

    Can someone please give Lewis an award for that fantastic use of the word "embulgening".

    Thanks

  7. Mike Hanna
    Troll

    What?

    So basically every girl who goes to college gets fatter. If they are fat they get a bit more fatterer. If they are thin they get a bit more fatter, but not so much fatterer. Perhaps the results should be given as a percentage.

    Porky trolls get 2.5lbs fatter, which is 1% of their starting weight.

    Skinny birds get 1lb fatter, which is 1% of their starting weight.

    I think this is more to do with the time spent up and awake. Those going to college will more likely stay up later for a plethora of different reasons - TV, movies, drinking, shagging, any reason but basically just because they can cos they're not with mommy and daddy any more. So as they stay up later they get the munchies and eat more crap.

    Lets face it, in America 2.5lbs of additional weight isn't going to be seen on most of the lardy chubby funsters anyway. That's like saying Tom Selleck's moustache has got slightly bushier - who the feck is going to notice?

    1. Jon Double Nice
      Thumb Up

      Can we please add "Selleck Moustaches"

      to the Reg SI units please?

    2. SImon Hobson Bronze badge
      FAIL

      @ Mike Hanna

      >> So basically every girl who goes to college gets fatter. If they are fat they get a bit more fatterer. If they are thin they get a bit more fatter, but not so much fatterer. Perhaps the results should be given as a percentage

      So you didn't actually read any of the article before hitting the keyboard then ?

      If you read the article it says NOTHING AT ALL about weight gain in the plumper room mates. What it says is that if a slimmer lass is roomed with another thin lass then on average she'll put on about 2 1/2lb. But if she's roomed with a more well built lass then she'll only put on an average of about 1/2lb.

      So the thin lasses put on more weight in roomed with another thin lass, and less weight if roomed with a more embulgened lass.

      I can't help thinking there's possibly an element of "sod that, I don't want to end up that size" making people more careful about what they eat.

      And before anyone accuses me of being sizeist (cue Not the Nine O'Clock News about stoutism), I'm a pretty corpulent bloke and if someone looks and me and decides that's encouragement to eat more carefully then I'm quite happy with that. Though I can understand if other have a different view.

  8. Gary F
    IT Angle

    Huh?

    No IT angle at all but a good story for the chubby chasing IT Reg readers out there. :-) Can we have a story on increasing bra sizes next please? Surely someone has done a study on that?

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Happy

      @Huh?

      "Can we have a story on increasing bra sizes next please? Surely someone has done a study on that?"

      Most men probably have done such a study... I know I have - any summer's day in a crowded city.

      "young-girl plumpening" - hmmm - sounds fun but vaguely illegal...

  9. Jane Fae

    Wrong?

    I'm sure this story is just WRONG...in loads of ways.

    Very funny.

    But wrong!

    jane

  10. Anonymous Coward
    FAIL

    Newsflash: Social scientists ignore the bleedin' obvious

    Erm, did anybody stop to consider that putting on a pound or two might be quite normal for A PERSON WHO IS STILL GROWING? College first-years will be around 18 years old so most of them will still not be completely physically mature (yes, even with the ever-earlier onset of puberty in the US) and still have some filling out to do, as it were.

    Any well-designed study would look at a bunch more controls, e.g. what happens to grad students or MBA students in their mid-20s who are physically mature? What happens if two people of similar weight room together? What about non-students sharing an apartment without access to a gym and a dining hall? Did they actually observe any of these alleged behaviors?

  11. John I'm only dancing
    WTF?

    Biggest danger

    I would have thought that the biggest danger to a sveldt American female would be being consumed by their hungry, lard-based, eater of worlds, roommate in this scenario.

  12. Anonymous Coward
    Headmaster

    Please note

    Reubens was a painter of well-rounded naked women. So well-rounded women are -

    Reubensesque

    And the story is about what happens when 2 first year college girls get together in a room and end up bursting out of their clothes. What's to complain about?

  13. Blake St. Claire

    1/2 pound? 2&1/2 pounds?

    I'm not 18, not female, and not a first year university student.

    Still, my weight can fluctuate as much as 3-5 pounds from day to day depending on whether I exercise or eat too many hors d'oeuvres at a party.

    I'm skeptical that you can conclude anything about someone whose weight changed by such small amounts.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      FAIL

      Wrong! Blake St. Claire

      Think about it "Blake St. Claire". Your weight cannot fluctuate by 3-5lbs because of changes to the amount you exercise or eat. Let me explain why. 1kg of fat is about 9000 calories. 5 lbs is over 22000 calories. So for you to put on 22000 calories by eating a bit more you would need to eat about 11 times more. Hard exercise on a gym machine can use about 500 calories an hour. So to change that amount of weight by exercise you need to change your exercise habits by about 44 hours a day. Or you can go for a combination and maybe eat 10 times as much and drop your exercise from 24 hours a day to none.

      Or you could put on 5lbs through fluid retention. This is trivial. When you go for a piss, let's assume you urinate half a litre, that is about a pound. You retain more water at different times of the day, so changing a few pounds just by weighing yourself at different times of the day is pretty easy. Finally, if your scales are a little old, they may have an error measured in pounds. Try getting on and off your scales 3 or 4 times in succession and see if your weight changes by a pound or 2.

      Regardless, I guarantee that your weight doesn't change by 5 pounds a day due to the amount you exercise or eat.

      1. Blake St. Claire

        Lionel Baden?

        Is that you?

      2. This post has been deleted by its author

      3. frank ly

        Get it right (think about it)

        Blake's (and other people's) body fat and muscle mass will not change much on a day to day basis, no matter how much they eat or exercise; true.

        However, a persons weight will vary, noticeably, day to day, depending on how much they eat and drink; depending on the pattern and timing of eat/drink activity and other activity. I suggest that one night you try eating a large donner kebab, washed down with four large cans of beer. This is guaranteed to make your weight increase by at least five pounds. Within 24 hours, this extra five pounds will disappear. It's true, I've tried it, it's amazing; where does it go?

  14. disgruntled yank

    2.5 lbs/year?

    I (male) got to college about 6 feet tall & 145 lb. I graduated weighing about 155 lb., with still low enough body fat that I floated only better than an anvil. That would be a 2.5 lb/year gain. I managed this without cohabitation with thin girls--I'd have been happy to try the experiment, they lacked enthusiasm.

  15. spiny norman
    IT Angle

    It related

    Due to coverage of this sort of nonsense, El Reg is missing essential IT-related news, like "Girl, 14, fears 21,000 party guests after Facebook invite blunder". Though I suppose if we want stuff like that we can go to the Daily Telegraph.

    1. Sceptic Tank Silver badge
      Paris Hilton

      Why wasn't I invited?

      I kid you not mister. I Googled that and Google asks "Did you mean: Girl, 14, fears 21,000 party guests after Facebook invite blonde "

  16. Naughtyhorse
    Thumb Up

    title etc etc

    embulgen

    lolz,that *another* new kbd you owe me please lewis

  17. Jonathan Richards 1
    Boffin

    Serious scientific question

    What controls were placed on the sample selections here? I do no more than observe that a number of fresh(wo)men may begin to take oral contraceptives during their first year at college, and that might account for some of the weight differences. Leaving Mom's home cooking and having to feed themselves is probably an even larger factor than the thinitude of their room-mates.

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