Freshman 15 Research Paper

Being overweight, eating poorly, and not exercising are becoming an epidemic in America, especially among college students. Most of the research on it states the same things, however the first research article I found speaks more to the behavior and its current affects on college students’ health. A slew of doctors and Jesse S. Morrell wrote an article about “Risk Factors Among College Men and Women” in relationship to obesity. The opening of this article stated that “an estimated 300,000 deaths each year are attributable to obesity… and young adults have experienced dramatic increases in obesity rates,” (Morrell, 2012, pg. 82). This statistic is what really got the research going and helped the researchers focus specifically on college-aged individuals. Upon diving into their research, the authors found more alarming statistics and related diseases. This included a recognizable relationship between obesity in young people and chronic disease risk, especially diabetes and cardiovascular disease (Morrell, 2012, pg. 82). In fact, CVD was the second leading cause of death in the US in that college-age group showing that our generation is at a greater risk for health problems than ever before due to our lack of exercise and healthy diets. Researchers then took to college campuses to examine students and their habits and provide risk assessments to promote healthier lifestyles and hopefully decrease the probability of CVD and DM through the metabolic syndrome system,

De Vos, P., Hanck, C., Neisingh, M., Prak, D., Groen, H., & Faas, M. M. (2015). Weight gain in freshman college students and perceived health. Preventive Medicine Reports, 2, 229–234.

When I arrived here at college I was extremely disappointed with the selection of food here in the cafeteria. I frequently found myself eating only hamburgers and pizza over and over again, simply because I did not like the other choices. About four months into the school year I had do go to the doctor for a virus and when the nurse weighed me I was a little surprised by what I saw. I had gained a little over ten pounds, close enough to what some refer to as the “Freshman 15.” It is a common fear among college students that they are going to gain fifteen pounds during the course of adjusting to college life. However experts have stated that the idea of the so called “Freshman 15,” is not that accurate. Every college student is obviously

In the article, “Freshman 15: College Weight Gain Is Real” introduced by the writer, Jennifer Warner, argues that students would are off to college as freshman are in risk of gaining significant weight. Warner adds that “A new study shows that nearly one in four freshmen gain at least 5% of their body weight, an average of about 10 pounds, during their first semester” (Warner). Jennifer Warner supports this with researchers Heidi J. Wengreen and Cara Moncur of the department of nutrition and food sciences at Utah State University in Logan write in Nutrition Journal.The researchers added “Almost one quarter of students gained a significant amount of weight during their first semester of college”. This demonstrates that within these 25% of students, they gain significant

Eating as a college student can have it shares of eating problems, healthy, deep fired, homemade and fast food. When in college, there is a moment when we are free of problems when suddenly one problem shows up with another one showing up few moments with a third one not far apart equaling not one, not two but three problems that need to be fixed. From one of those three problems is hunger because it’s common for people to be hungry anytime of the day. Eduardo Martinez’s interesting argument article “A college argument”, has an interested argument that its target audience is college students because for starters, it has the subject college within the title making it easy to whom it talks about.

My article was about the dreaded freshman 15 and how it’s common for freshman students to gain weight during their first year. The article talks about if students actually gain 15 pounds just in their first year alone. Some studies have said that this is false, and the average weight gain is closer to around 7 and ½ pounds. While this isn’t so bad, the article goes on to show where all those calories will be coming from, and give tips as to how to avoid weight gain. The article mentions how to pick healthy food in the dining hall, and how to eat less while there. It advises also getting into habits of going to the gym and staying active alongside eating healthy. Lastly, it talks about snacking in between meals and drinking calories. The author

Freshman 101 is a class adapted from the parrot program (Fay & Medway, 2006, p. 226). The parrot program was designed for college students at Cornell University. Freshman 101 is the first of its kind in the state of South Carolina and the first to extend Parrot’s college program to high school freshmen (p. 226). Each two-hour intervention class contained 25 to 30 freshmen students. The objectives of the class were to have participants understand the definition of acquaintance rape and the frequency that it takes place along with South Carolina’s laws regarding rape (p. 226). Students also learned about mixed messages associated with verbal and non-verbal communication and how to clearly state their wants and desires (p. 227). Communication,

Growing up, people are bombarded with societal ideals about how they should look and ways that they should act. Everyday, people are exposed to hundreds of ideas of what people perceive as beautiful as portrayed in television or commercial advertisements, printed ads, billboards, and online. Since people are constantly being exposed to these ideas, it is only natural that after time it will begin to impact people’s lives in some way. While some people feel this pressure more than others, a time in a person’s life where they are especially vulnerable to developing body issues is college. For many people college is the first time where they are away from the home for the first and must make new friends. College students are particularly susceptible to developing issues because of how exciting this new time is in one person’s life. For these young adults, the new independence, increased workload, homesickness, and desire to succeed in their new surroundings puts unsolicited pressure on them that they have never experienced before. Suddenly, the pressure of having a slim hourglass figure, perfectly styled hair, and impeccably manicured nails are influential in ways that one may not have thought before.

We all regret some of the choices we’ve had in the beginning of our high school journey. Since we can’t go back and change them, we can always give advice to the incoming freshman who may need our advice. Coming from middle school can be a hard transition because there are so many new things to learn. New students will face a new campus, teachers, friends, and overall a new way of life. I believe that freshman students who struggle to adapt into high school can lead to poor grades, peer pressure, and losing focus of long term goals. Here are some suggestions to help incoming freshman have a successful high school experience.

Julianne Tarullo, a journalist from the Huffington Post and press coordination of NBCUniversal Media, explains the nutritional challenges of a college student in her article “Nutrition in College: Answers From the Experts.” Weight gain, eating habits, fad diets, drinking, and weight management are some of the nutritional challenges that a college student may face. Tarullo’s article relates to a topic of why college years are a nutritional challenge, which is a topic discussed in chapter 7 of “Get Fit Stay Well.”

Other than freshman 15, where you gain weight, there is also the possibility of losing weight due to stress and not having a proper meal to eat everyday. The meal plans in a college campus are as bad as if you are purchasing a meal in a restaurant. The food put out is greasy and has more fat. Some colleges even have a meal plan that is all you can eat. That will of course make you gain weight if you take in consideration the money you put into the plan. Not all food given there are healthy and can cause you to begin eating wrong.

College is a transitional period for young adults, and for the most part many of them are leaving their parents’ house and experiencing independency. As an emerging adult, the college student engages in new responsibilities such as, figuring out their financial stability, and learning how to manage time between school-work, job, and other activities. While learning how to practice time management students’ eating habits in college seem to be a problem, and with the media college students are more likely to engage in disturbed eating behaviors.

Not only is the “Freshman 15” unhealthy, but this label can cause a person to lose confidence in herself due to her new image. Gaining these extra pounds can cause peers to tease and bully students, causing them to lose focus in school. With healthier choices in the dining halls, it will be easier for students to avoid this stereotype and feel better about themselves. College students will continue to maintain a healthy weight and keep their self esteem.

The main focus of this research is on freshman who are newly transitioning from highschool to college. The objective of this research is to measure possible reasons why students are gaining a substantial amount of weight while they are currently enrolled freshman year of college and how that weight gain can influence and increase the chance of diseases in their lives later on.

College age students face different problems than the teens in high school. When students live in dormitories at a university or college, they eat on a meal plan. They usually do not have money of their own to spend on food at restaurants so the cafeteria regulates what food they eat. The cafeterias serve a lot of foods such as hamburgers or other meats with sauces and a lot of potatoes. These foods are very high in starch and cause of weight gain.