In a recent study done by Angelo Tremblay at his lab at the Universite Laval in Quebec, it was found that those performing mental tasks like trying to solve problems (e.g. Calculus 111), while working at a computer stimulated their appetite so much that they tended to eat more calories than their bodies actually burned while performing the task.

The psychological logic for the rise in appetite?  According to the study, mental work “destabilizes” our levels of insulin and glucose, which in turn stimulates the appetite.

Is this why after a weekend of total dedication to homework, I suddenly find I’ve depleted me and my roommate’s entire snack supply?

According to Tremblay’s study, participants consumed far more calories after performing a mental task like reading for a class than relaxing for the same amount of time. In addition, they concluded that time spent surfing the Internet, as well as instant messaging, may very well be a significant factor in the obesity epidemic amongst college students.

So studying is really to blame for the freshman 15?

The study was done on fourteen 20-30 year olds in good health with no eating disorders over a course of two months. Since the studying-induced weight gain seems to affect college-aged women the most, it proves that women tend to eat more because of stress than men.

Let us know your opinion!  Do you believe “thinking” while eating has ever caused you to eat more?

While I was whiling away the couple of weeks between the end of the semester and sweet, sweet winter break, I ended up supplementing my meager collegiate diet with tons of grapefruit, since I was lucky enough to have a fruit tree in my backyard.

I came up with all kinds of ways of eating these acidic, pink babies: drizzling them with honey, cubing them in salads, juicing them, and slamming them down with a glass of O.J.

What I didn’t know then was that eating a little grapefruit with every meal helps you shave off pounds. Of course, thems were desperate times, and I don’t think I cared very much about stemming my freshman fifteen, but whatevs.

Still, according to a 2006 study, something about the acidic plant compounds found in grapefruit helps lower insulin levels — and the smaller the amount of insulin you have coursing through your blood after eating, the more efficiently your body uses food for energy, rather than storing it as fat. It seems unbelievable, but apparently participants in the study who chowed on citrus before they ate lost on average 3.6 pounds more than people who didn’t.

After my long-term grapefruit diet ended, it took me months to even be able to look at the damn things again, so I worry that months of citrus meal-prefaces would drive even the most devoted dieter to madness.