Matchday Calories: The Premier League’s Biggest Comfort Eaters
- A new report from Bookmakers.com reveals how many calories Premier League fans might consume post-gameday depending on their team’s win-loss record.
- Thanks to Burnley’s on on-field performances over the last five years, fans potentially consumed 12,948 extra calories than the UK average.
- Fans of Liverpool FC consumed 9,984 fewer calories post-gameday than the average due their stellar performances.
The Premier League is arguably the greatest sporting league in the world, with millions of fans all over the globe supporting their team no matter the result. Whilst team performance undoubtably has a significant effect on supporter’s moods, have you ever wondered how these results could affect the eating habits of fans?
A new report from Bookmakers.com reveals how the on-field performances of all current Premier League teams has influenced fans’ calorie consumption. Through the utilisation of findings from Cornil and Chandon’s (20131) academic paper, ‘From Fan to Fat’, Bookmakers.com highlight the Premier Leagues biggest comfort eaters, discovering the calorie change from the UK average.
To understand the data, the average adult in the UK eats around 3,1192 calories a day. Using Burnley as an example, this means UK adults over the course of the last five years have consumed, on average, 405,470kcals during game days (130 games played x 3,119 calories each day). This number (405,470kcals) acts as the base for revealing the calorie change and percentage change for Burnley – an example of the working can be found in the methodology below.
Burnley at the Top of the Table!
With the research suggesting that fans are more likely to overeat when their team loses (10% increase), it’s not good news for Burnley and Newcastle United fans. With some of the worst records in the Premier League, both sets of fans were likely consuming more post-gameday calories than any other team, eating over 3.15% more than the national average. This equates to around 13,000 additional calories over the course of the last few seasons.
Following the research, fans are inclined to cut out calories by 5% after their team wins. This means Liverpool and Manchester City fans experienced the healthiest post-gameday calorie count. Thanks to an impressive record over the last five years, Liverpool fans could have eaten 9,984 (-2.41%) fewer calories than the national average. This is closely followed by City’s count of 9,516 fewer calories (-2.29%).
The table below shows each Premier League team in order of greatest calorie % change vs. average:
| Rank | Team | W-D-L | Calorie Change vs. Average |
Calorie % Change vs. Average |
| 1 | Burnley | 37-33-60 | 12,948 | 3.19% |
| 2 | Newcastle United | 36-37-60 | 13,104 | 3.16% |
| 3 | Brighton and Hove Albion | 32-46-54 | 11,856 | 2.88% |
| 4 | Southampton | 40-35-58 | 11,856 | 2.86% |
| 5 | Crystal Palace | 42-33-58 | 11,544 | 2.78% |
| 6 | Watford* | 53-29-57 | 9516 | 2.19% |
| 7 | Aston Villa* | 52-32-56 | 9360 | 2.14% |
| 8 | West Ham United | 53-28-52 | 7956 | 1.92% |
| 9 | Everton | 50-31-49 | 7488 | 1.85% |
| 10 | Wolverhampton Wanderers | 50-36-46 | 6552 | 1.59% |
| 11 | Norwich City* | 63-33-53 | 6708 | 1.44% |
| 12 | Leicester City | 60-25-47 | 5304 | 1.29% |
| 13 | Tottenham Hotspur | 66-24-41 | 2496 | 0.61% |
| 14 | Brentford* | 70-42-44 | 2808 | 0.58% |
| 15 | Leeds United* | 74-29-45 | 2496 | 0.54% |
| 16 | Arsenal | 64-30-39 | 2,184 | 0.53% |
| 17 | Manchester United | 66-36-29 | -1,248 | -0.31% |
| 18 | Chelsea | 71-31-31 | -1,404 | -0.34% |
| 19 | Manchester City | 101-12-20 | -9,516 | -2.29% |
| 20 | Liverpool | 94-24-15 | -9,984 | -2.41% |
*Some results from EFL Championship
Further information and the results of other leagues around the world can be found onsite here: https://bookmakers.com/news/matchday-calories-the-biggest-comfort-eaters-in-sport
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Source:
- *Cornil, Y. and Chandon, P., 2013. From fan to fat? Vicarious losing increases unhealthy eating, but self-affirmation is an effective remedy. Psychological science, 24(10), pp.1936-1946.
- https://news.sky.com/story/average-person-is-eating-50-more-calories-than-they-realise-data-shows-11257398
Methodology
For this campaign, we looked to identify which sports fans have consumed the most additional calories based on their team’s performances over the last five years.
To figure this out, findings from Cornil and Chandon’s (2013) academic paper ‘From Fat to Fan’ were utilized. The study concludes that, after a loss, fans ate 10% more calories than usual. However, after a win, fans consumed 5% fewer calories. Based on these findings, win/loss records for each team were acquired from the last five years and the below calculations were made.
To establish each fan bases calorie consumption in relation to the average person, we first determined the average daily calorie intake of a typical adult: 3,119kcals a day. This figure was then multiplied by the number of games played over the last five years, to reveal ‘Average Game Day Calories’.
For example: Burnley
- 130 Games x 3,119kcals = 405,470 Average Game Day Calories
Understanding that losing = a 10% increase (3431kcals) and winning = a 5% decrease (2,963kcals) in calorie consumption, the number of wins and losses per team were multiplied by these figures and combined, to reveal the total calories consumed by the average fan of that particular team.
For example: Burnley
- 2,963kcals x 37 wins = 109,631kcals
- 3431kcals x 60 losses = 205,860kcals
- 3119kcals x 33 draws = 102,927kcals
‘Total Game Day Calories’ consumed over 5 seasons for a Burnley fan:
- 109,631kcals + 205,860kcals + 102,927kcals = 418,418 Total Game Day Calories
The ‘Average Game Day Calories’ was then subtracted from ‘Total Game Day Calories’ to reveal the overall calorie difference.
For example: Burnley
- 418,418kcals – 405,470kcals = 12,948 additional calories consumed (3.19% above the average game day consumption).
For sports outside the UK, this methodology was altered with average calorie consumptions being based on each league’s location. For example, the NFL’s daily average calorie figure was 3,600: the US average.