NFL Fans of Losing Teams Trade Points for Pounds

It’s no secret that as we get older that tiny (or maybe not so tiny) tire around your waist gets harder and harder to keep off.  And of course, football season brings many of our favorite things….cooler weather, heavier beers, tailgate/party food, etc. so naturally we are less concerned about our “girlish figure” than we were prior to summer.  But hold on to your hats football fans because this season, your teams loss is your gain.

We all haggle people that we label as “bandwagon fans” and some of us don’t have the luxury of being loyal to an annual playoff contending team *cough cough – Tennessee Titans fans* If you’re home team has been “less than stellar” lately then We’re talking to you!  According to new French research, those pesky extra pounds may be contributed to the fact that you’re more likely to eat unhealthy foods the day after your favorite football team suffers a loss.

Research found that fans of losing teams consumed 10 percent more calories than their average daily consumption (And the bigger the team’s losing deficit, the more they ate!!!). Now don’t get me wrong, I fully support drowning your post-game sorrows in some delicious parmesan garlic wings and washing it down with a beer…or two…or three.

But why do losers gorge eat after each disappointing loss? Research suggests that fans adopt the identity of the team they root for. Taking wins and losses personally affects self-regulation, making you throw those inhibitions to the wind and indulge in those sinful calorie-packed foods (that we all love so much).

Now, you may be thinking, “I’m from Boston and our team has been phenomenal every year for the past decade blah blah blah so what about us who are not use to losing?” Research also showed that winners translate feelings to their food choices too! Caloric intake went down 5 percent in spectators whose teams were victorious.

Could this just be speculation? A Coincidence? Possibly. But Men’s Health News took it one step further and found that in St. Louis, Jacksonville, Cleveland, Detroit, and Nashville—all cities with perennially bad NFL teams—placed in the bottom half of a Gallup-Heathways poll tracking obesity in 190 of the United States’ biggest metro areas. All the while, San Francisco, Denver, and Boston—towns with successful NFL franchises—were among the least obese areas.

So if you are predicting a painful season for your team this year, take the advice of Christian End, Ph.D., associate professor of psychology at Xavier University. “To deal with a tough sports loss, try blaming someone else. When our guys win, we often ascribe their success to how great they played. But when they lose, it’s easier to attribute the rout to some other external factor in the game, like bad officiating from the referees or fluke injuries to their star players.” Long story short, as fans we convince ourselves that our team isn’t indeed bad after all, we just got royally screwed. “It’s called ‘cutting off reflected failure,’ and doing it helps you brush off a loss without your ego taking a blow.”

Eh, to each their own. But next time your losing team has you angrily yelling at your TV, possibly think twice about drowning your sorrows in a pint of Ben and Jerry’s. As for you, fans with the winning teams, carry on my calorie loving friends…carry on.