Is the freshman fifteen fact or fiction? The freshman fifteen is when first year college students finish up there freshman year with more than an education around their belt. Supposedly, many students gain around fifteen pounds of weight during there freshman year. If this is true, why do students gain weight at college? Is the change between college and home the only reason for student weight gain? Is the culprit being in a different environment? Maybe there is to much freedom from being away from home. Stress, freedom, and sleep deprivation, is causing freshman to gain fifteen pounds in college. Stress is a well known part of college. Even if prepared the long papers, painstaking testes, and unforgiving reading can be emotionally draining. Stress can also be cause by money, relationships and many other events that happen in ones life. One way people cope with emotions is by eating. Most of the time the food consumed when emotion eating is unhealthy and in large proportions. According to a study of college students and their cardiovascular health, almost 60 percent college students said their stress level as being high or …show more content…
Also many students in college are still growing, many people do not reach their maximum hight until their early twenties. The average freshman going into college is eighteen, making it a very high probability that students would gain weight because of growth. Also, stress can cause weight gain but can also cause weight loss. When people become stress, many sometimes forget to eat, putting food second to what needs to be accomplished. So even if students do gain a few pounds for other reasons, stress may keep there weight the same if they eat less. After paying for college many students do not have a lot of money. This is were the stereotype, roman eating college student comes into play. How could someone gain weight when all their eating is small amounts of unhealthy
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.
Perhaps the biggest factor that causes students to gain weight is the adjustment from eating at home to eating at college. A student from Chicago State University wrote in the school paper that, “Students in their first year away from home are sometimes not experienced in choosing foods or balanced meals” (French). The free-for-all campus style eating allows for unlimited choices of food and no parents to tell students what they can or cannot eat. Dietitian Ann Litt is also quoted in a Washington Post article in stating that, “the all you can eat concept in most college food services is an invitation overeat” (Linder). College dining halls are set up like fast food restaurants, and some even contain a McDonalds or a Pizza Hut. Fast food style eating really has no nutritional value, other than lots of fat and calories. In an article which examined the ways which students eat nutritional professor Christina Economos stated that more than fifty percent of students are eating too much fat, and seventy to eighty percent are getting too much saturated fat. She states that lack of fruit and vegetable consumption and the eating of mostly processed food is the main cause of weight gain among students (Linder). When students enter the dining hall they need to remind themselves that eating healthy is important.
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
Nutrition is crucial to keeping our body and the mind healthy, however, many people who struggle with stress, anxiety or depression tend to reach for food that eases them such as chips or fast food this is known to be “comfort food”. This food has a direct effect on students energy levels and interrupts them to perform well in their daily life. Moreover, there are many times when post-secondary students are load with so much on their plate that many don't feel the need to eat because they are too overwhelmed to eat or are not motivated too. Mental health is a prominent factor in a university student life which inability impacts their ability to perform a day-to-day task due to chronic
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.
Currently, college age individuals are more overwhelmed than ever. More often than not, a college student will use the term “stressed out” to describe themselves. It seems to have become more of a lifestyle over time without proper coping mechanisms. Why are college students so stressed out? Students are constantly faced with many demands all at once – to study and achieve good grades, to work, to pay bills, have a social life, and still manage to sleep, eat, and take care of themselves all within the 24 hours the day has. Fit for Fifteen is a program that will benefit college students in teaching them healthy coping mechanisms for stress, while helping them create healthy meal plans and budgeting strategies.
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
Many incoming student athletes face problems with being out of shape when they first start their season. Many will claim that they will start to get in shape when they begin practicing and once they get used to it. It could be true for some student athletes, but they will find themselves struggling throughout the first couple months. Why not start off the season already in shape by eating correctly. Diet will be one of the most important lifestyles in a student athlete’s life. A lot of new collegiate student athletes will not know that eating three meals a day will help them throughout their whole season as well as their pre-season. I believe that all student athletes should consume at least three meals a day while keeping in mind what they are eating. Not only is it important for them to eat three meals a day but it is very important for all student athletes to consume the right amount of water everyday.
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.
Freshman face three types of problems going into colleges, which are money issues, the freshman 15, and laziness. Coming into college students are not aware on how money works with financial aid. So, they expect to get a huge sum of money but really only get a couple hundred. Also, they have to survive off that sum of money until they get a job or next semester. The second problem is “The Freshman 15” which is a weight gain of 15 pounds. Freshmen are typically not aware of their weight, because they are focusing on school work and due dates. Also, they are trying to get comfortable with their campus. The last problem is freshman tend to be lazy and expect everything to be handed to them like high school. That is not the case; teachers are there
Obesity has risen over the years. The United States now has one of the highest obesity rates. Bad eating habits are usually the cause of this pandemic. For the past few decades, college dorm foods have led to these habits. The more unhealthy food choices are, the harder it is for people to resist these foods. Colleges serve a variety of unhealthy food in their dining halls that contributes to students’ lower GPA. By eating healthier, students can maintain a healthy weight, focus better in school, and increase their school performance to a higher grade point average (GPA).
Eating habits are closely associated with our perception of eating. There can be also exogenous factors that affects our eating habits such as getting low mark from the exam or ending of a romantic relationship. Some people tend to be eat more or less depends on these triggering situations. This study will examine the relationship between stress and eating disorder among üniversity students. (They will not be clinically diagnosed) Eating disorders will be measured by using Eating Attitudes Test and stress level will be measured by using Cohen’s Perceived Stress Scale. Data will be collected from 100 male and female university students in a campus setting and via e-mail. It is expected that students who have high stress level tend to have disturbed attitude toward eating which may leads to eating disorder. It is not a cause and effect relationship ,but Eating Attitudes Test will reflect students ' tendency to have eating disorder. Also, abnormal eating patterns will be included in this article such as bulimia, binge eating and anorexia.
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.