Intake of Energy and Macronutrients During Working Days and Days-Off Among Working College Students

*Corresponding author e-mail; jsteluti@usp.br Introduction: The daily intake of energy and macronutrients can be affected by a number of factors during waking time, including number and duration of daily activities. Evening College students usually have a double shiftthey work during the day and study in the evening hours. This can contribute to unhealthy diets and irregular mealtimes. The aim of this study is to estimate the percentage contribution of energy and macronutrients in the predetermined intervals along the 24h-period among College students during workdays and weekends (free-days). Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted among 26 working college students (14 males and 12 females), aged 21 to 26 years, who worked at least six hours per day, attended evening classes (19:30h to 23:1 Oh) in a public College of São Paulo, Brazil. Activity rest records were assessed during 7 consecutive days using Ambulatory Monitoring Actigraph. The dietary intake was estimated by seven-day food records. The nutritional contribution of each food was computed using Nutrition Data System for Research software. One hundred eightytwo food records were assessed. The day (24-h period) was divided in 4 intervals; 1) 5h|- -11 h, 2) 11 h| — 14h, 3) 14|—19h:30min and 4) 19h:30min|—5h. Descriptive and mean comparisons were performed using SPSS for windows, version 13.0. A 5% level of significance was used in Kolmogorov-Smirnov test to detect normality and Student t-test to compare workdays and weekends food intake. Results: The mean daily intake of energy, fat, carbohydrates and protein were respectively; 2,244.5 Kcal (sd 829.8); 84.1(sd 32.5); 275.2(sd 120.2); 91.2(sd 34.0). The average daily percentage contribution of energy, fat, carbohydrates and proteins showed statistical significance (p<.05) between weekdays and weekends, in intervals 1, 2, and 3, respectively in the following itemsa) energy; 21.3% and 12.0%; 32.6% and 29.9%; 28.1% and 42.3%; b) fat; 19.9% and 10.2%; 36.4% and 22.8%; 27.5% and 42.7%; c) carbohydrates: 24.3% and 14.7%; 28.1% and 20.0%; 29.2% and 42.4%; d) protein; 18.2% and 11.3%; 38.3% and 21.6%; 26.6% and 42.7%. Conclusions: The study found lower percentage of energy and macronutrients in the interval 1 and 2, and higher, in the interval 3 when compared the dietary intake during the weekend and weekdays (workdays). During the weekends there were a reduction/omission of some meals, such as breakfast and lunch. This is probably due to later waking times during weekends as a sleep rebound. Support: CNPq (472153/2006-4; 501766/2007-3; 500782/2008- 3;307919/2006-4;370152/2009-3); CNPq- PIBIC; CAPES and FAPESP (07/04648-4;08/02102-7;06/5903-2;08/03191-3). Publication History Article published online: 16 June 2026 © 2009. Brazilian Sleep Academy. This is an open access article published by Thieme under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonDerivative-NonCommercial License, permitting copying and reproduction so long as the original work is given appropriate credit. Contents may not be used for commercial purposes, or adapted, remixed, transformed or built upon. (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/) Thieme Revinter Publicações Ltda. Rua Rego Freitas, 175, loja 1, República, São Paulo, SP, CEP 01220-010, Brazil