Work Your Cock-tail Off: Calorie Restriction and Exercise Output in College Students Participating in Extreme Drinking

Abstract

The purpose of the current study is to examine the relationship between extreme drinking, caloric intake, and exercise output in college students. Such problems as “drunkorexia,” defined as the practice of restricting calories so more alcohol can be consumed without gaining weight, (Burke, Cremeens, & Vail-Smith, 2010) and “excessive exercising,” defined as performing exercise to influence weight, shape, or body tone as well as experiencing guilt when exercise is postponed or cancelled, (Mond et al., 2008) have been rising on college campuses. This study aims to discover the percentage of college students engaging in extreme drinking, and further looking at their eating and exercising habits to determine if these two disorders previously mentioned are affecting this specific population, and to what extent. Associations have been found between eating disorders and excessive exercising (Mond et al., 2008) as well as between eating disorders and extreme drinking (Krahn, Kurth, Gomberg & Drewnowski, 2004), thus there is a common association of eating disorders between excessive exercising and extreme drinking. This leads to the implication that college students who participate in extreme drinking have a greater probability of having an eating disorder, such as drunkorexia, as well as a greater probability of performing in excessive exercising.