Why Do College Students Gain Weight?

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

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.

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

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

The myth indicates that first-year college students either gain fifteen pound from eating unhealthy or lose fifteen pounds due to not eating during their first years in college. We are all encouraged to take health class in college and learn about nutrients, but we can barely apply our knowledge to campus food. Cal Poly Pomona provides various options for food around campus, but not every dining space is healthy. As diligent students around campus, I believe the campus should improve its dining options. The common phrase: “You are what you eat” is highly emphasized in health class. I suggest the replacement of Round Table Pizza with healthier local restaurants that will serve students. Our campus does not serve fish to its students, but fish is high in Omega-3 fatty acids which boost body and brain functions. As students visually see the implementation of healthy food alternatives on campus, they will apply the knowledge from health class upon their diets. In health class, we were instructed to track our diets with the MyPlate. Through my food tracking on the website, I learned what food groups I was overeating and others that I was under eating. This website mapped out my goals for dairy, fruits, vegetables, carbohydrates, calories and sugars intakes which enabled me to visualize my diet. I would suggest that Cal Poly Pomona offers the MyPlate as an option for students to do over a quarter of 0.5 units so students

One easy fix for this weight gain is to have healthy food at on campus eating facilities. Not just healthy options like many schools have already but healthy food as the norm. Instead of having three Starbucks, a pizza place and two burger chains, colleges should have restaurants that serve healthy foods like a quinoa salad, fresh fruit and hummus. In college, everyone just wants to fit in so by having healthy food being considered normal the peer pressure would be to have a salad instead of a pizza slice.

According to the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare ‘good health is an important element in a child’s quality of life as it can influence participation in many aspects of the life, including school and physical education’. A poor start to a child’s life increases the outcome of a poor adult life, as 24.9% of children aged from 5-17years already overweight or obese. These statistics are based on The International Obesity Task Force (IOTF), who have developed a standard age and sex-specific Body Mass Index (BMI) cut off point. Nutrition is the key factor of a student’s health and wellbeing, already students are; eating 48% junk food per day and eating majority foods that fall under the ‘red food’ category. (Health

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.

What peoples beliefs are can also affect their diet, they may become vegetarian or vegan which can be very healthy if executed the right way. A lot of studies have been done that relate stress and weight gain, so stress can definitely influence the way a person eats. Not only can it be academically but also social kind of stress can contribute to unhealthy choices, for example, after a bad breakup people actually do tend to eat more sweets and just sit around. Information on what people can do different in their diets would be very helpful; having a better knowledge on healthier diets would help people recognize what they are doing wrong and how to fix it. Many times people turn to fad diets because the fastest way and easiest place to get information from, now a days, is going on the internet and that’s were so many fad diets are being advertised. Time, it is apparently a hard thing to find in college, no one has time to go out to the store and buy groceries much less cook them, leading people to find something they can make quick in order to go back and hit the books or the television, a quick meal most of the time isn’t the best thing. These were some of the main reasons mentioned by the students that seem to affect eating behaviors (Deliens,

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,

The “Freshman 15” is a term used to describe the average amount of weight gained during the first year of college. This significant weight gain may be true for some students, but most only gain less than five pounds. Some students are even able to lose weight during their first year of college. There are many alleged causes to blame for this gain, some of them include overeating, late night snacking, limited dining hall food options and alcohol consumption. Avoiding weight gain can be very challenging, especially for people who were used to playing sports their entire lives but didn’t continue at the college level. Fitting in time to exercise and finding motivation to workout can be difficult without some driving force. In a study conducted by Lauren Penney, she interviewed women and asked them their work out tendencies during their freshman year of college. (see table 3)

Many individuals have heard of freshman fifteen but do not know how to avoid it. My purpose of doing my project on how to survive freshman fifteen is to inform current college freshman on how to avoid gaining fifteen pounds within their first year of college. College is different from being in high school in which at home your parent or guardians are there to monitor eating habits in college your parents are not there to tell you what to do. The culture for my product is college freshman who attends Western Michigan University.While completing the survival guide I interviewed a current WMU freshman in which conformed to me that she has gained weight already and it is only her first semester of college.She also confirmed that since she has been away from home she has not any vegetables she eat things that taste more

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).

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.