Decreased eating frequency linked to increased visceral adipose tissue, body fat, and BMI in Hispanic college freshmen

Table 3 Adiposity measures and metabolic parameters between eating frequency groups^a,b

	All Infrequent Eaters (n = 45)	All Frequent Eaters (n = 47)	p value	Male Infrequent Eaters (n = 24)	Male Frequent Eaters (n = 21)	p value	Female Infrequent Eaters (n = 21)	Female Frequent Eaters (n = 26)	p value
Sex M/F^c	24/21	21/26	0.53	–	–	–	–	–	–
Age (y)^c	18.9 ± 0.4	18.7 ± 0.4	0.05	18.8 ± 0.4	18.6 ± 0.4	0.21	19.0 ± 0.4	18.8 ± 0.4	0.09
Height (cm)^c	167.0 ± 10.4	167.8 ± 9.4	0.16	174.3 ± 5.7	175.5 ± 5.5	0.48	158.7 ± 8.1	161.5 ± 6.9	0.20
Weight (kg)^c	69.4 ± 16.2	64.7 ± 11.2	0.29	77.1 ± 15.7	73.2 ± 9.8	0.33	61.0 ± 12.1	57.7 ± 6.6	0.24
Waist circumference (cm)^d	86.2 ± 11.6	83.1 ± 7.2	0.19	87.8 ± 11.9	83.8 ± 8.7	0.15	84.4 ± 11.3	82.6 ± 5.8	0.19
BMI (kg/m²)^d	24.8 ± 4.4	22.9 ± 3.2	0.02	25.3 ± 4.5	23.8 ± 3.5	0.10	24.2 ± 4.3	22.2 ± 2.8	0.04
BMI percentile^d	64.0 ± 27.8	55.9 ± 26.6	0.08	65.5 ± 28.5	59.5 ± 29.2	0.22	62.4 ± 27.7	53.1 ± 24.4	0.17
BMI z score^d	0.5 ± 1.0	0.2 ± 1.0	0.03	0.6 ± 1.1	0.3 ± 1.1	0.13	0.4 ± 0.9	0.1 ± 0.8	0.11
VAT (ml)^d	298.3 ± 153.8	236.8 ± 78.2	0.03	307.9 ± 130.6	262.8 ± 89.6	0.12	287.5 ± 179.5	215.8 ± 61.6	0.18
SAT (ml)^d	1150.1 ± 765.4	855.6 ± 494.6	0.03	1152.4 ± 856.0	870.3 ± 589.0	0.17	1147.7 ± 667.9	843.7 ± 415.1	0.06
Hepatic Fat (ml)^d	31.4 ± 39.9	27.1 ± 32.1	0.35	34.7 ± 44.7	35.6 ± 46.2	0.90	27.6 ± 34.3	20.2 ± 8.7	0.26
NAFLD n (%)^c	9 (20.0)	11 (23.4)	0.80	4 (16.7)	7 (33.3)	0.30	5 (23.8)	4 (15.4)	0.49
Total lean tissue (%)^d	72.4 ± 10.8	74.7 ± 8.8	0.04	77.6 ± 10.2	80.3 ± 7.6	0.21	66.5 ± 8.3	70.2 ± 7.1	0.08
Total body fat (%)^d	27.6 ± 10.8	25.3 ± 8.8	0.04	22.4 ± 10.2	19.7 ± 7.6	0.21	33.5 ± 8.3	29.8 ± 7.1	0.08

^aData presented as mean ± SD or n (%)
^bNAFLD Non Alcoholic Fatty Liver Disease, SAT Subcutaneous Adipose Tissue, VAT Visceral Adipose Tissue
^cA t-test (for continuous variables) and chi-square analysis (for categorical variables) assessed differences in sex, age, height, and weight between groups
^dMANCOVA analysis of adiposity measures between Infrequent Eaters and Frequent Eaters (n = 92). For the combined sample a priori covariates included: age, sex, and percent time spent in moderate to vigorous physical activity. When the sample was split by sex a priori covariates included: age, sex, and percent time spent in moderate to vigorous physical activity

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