The Freshman Fifteen is a term coined to describe the weight gained by college students in the first year of study at college or university. This term is commonly used in the United States and Canada. The freshman fifteen refers to the often reported claim that freshman typically gain or lose up to fifteen pounds during their first year. In Australia and New Zealand it is sometimes referred to as Fresher Five (five kilograms) or Fresher spread. The purported causes of this weight gain are increased alcohol intake and the consumption of fat- and carbohydrate-rich cafeteria-style food and fast food in university dormitories. Many dining halls in United States universities are all-you-can-eat style and have copious dessert options. In addition, lack of sleep may cause overeating and weight gain, because it lowers the level of leptin. Other causes include malnutrition, stress, and decreased levels of exercise. All of these factors can affect each person in a different way. Studies have been done which confirm many of these causes. Colleges and universities have recently been cracking down on this common problem and are trying to educate people on how to prevent it. This problem has grown so much that even the students themselves are trying to stop the freshman fifteen before it even happens [1].
Contents |
To begin the discussion about the freshmen fifteen, how and what students are consuming needs to be broken down. It can be agreed that the typical freshmen just graduated from high school and are using a predetermined college meal plan. College meal plans are designed to give students a wide variety of options. The most generic meal plans include a set amount of meals per day, so many per week, or so many per semester. Alma College in Michigan gives a great break down of there meal plan and it can be seen here[2]. In addition to, plans may include extra money that can be spent on snacks or other meals. The meal plan was designed to give students a structured diet that allows them to decide what they want to eat and when they want to eat it. Therefore students can be eating several meals a day or less than three meals a day. The meal plan was designed to benefit the student but it can be abused.
The dining halls at colleges try to make dinning at school convenient and comfortable. The most common dining halls found at universities or colleges around America are buffet, food court, or cafeteria style eateries. Dining halls can provide a wide variety and bountiful options of food. They can also provide a place where students can endlessly indulge in high calorie foods such as pizza, fried food, and ice cream. Food court style dining halls connects students students with commercialized restaurants such as Taco Bell, McDonald's, and Burger King. A study done on 60 students at Cornell Univeristy showed that 20% of the wieght gained by the test subjects was due to the fact students were eating at all-you-can-eat dining halls[3]. Other factors included snacking, eating junk food, and meal frequency all contributed to the variation in weights that resulted.
College dining halls can be very appealing to some students and even repulsive to others. Freshmen are coming from homes where meals are most likely prepared by their parents and their eating habits are based primarily off there parents'. In the journal of adolescent health they determined, “Regular family meals provide an opportunity for the role modeling of healthy eating patterns and social interactions among family members, and may thus help to reinforce healthy eating patterns and prevent disordered eating behaviors.”[4] With no parent intravention students entering college need to discover what their eating habits are. In the process of discovering the good eating patterns needed to keep a balanced weight, students can over eat as well as under eat. This maybe due to such disorders as binge eating, Bulimia, and Anorexia nervosa.
Entering school the endless amount of food a dining hall provides can be deceptive and it has been studied that many college students do not eat enough fruits, vegetables, and diary products[5]. These are all needed for a healthy diet and to maintain a healthy weight. In an article wirrten by Debbie Vasen the average 18 year old male is between the height of 68-70 inches tall and weighs between 160-170 lbs. The average 18 year old female is 64 inches tall and between the weights of 125-130 lbs[6]. According to a calorie calculator used at the Baylor College of Medicine an average male 18 years old who is rarely active needs to consume around aproximately 2676 calories per day to maintain his current weight[7]. A Female 18 years old and who is rarely active needs to consume aproximately 1940 calories per day to maintain the weight she is. For a weight change to occur college students are either digesting over or under there daily need of calories per day and this is one cause of the freshmen 15.
Malnutrition can be caused by a number of things including inadequate or unbalanced diet, problems with digestion or absorption, or certain medical conditions[8]. Hunger is a main cause of malnutrition because if it is not satisfied then malnutrition is sure to follow. People suffer from hunger because of a lack of food and the nutrients which accompany food in the short term. If hunger proceeds for an extended period of time there is a good chance that it will lead to malnutrition. Malnutrition can affect people of every age. Though infants, children, and adolescents suffer more from malnutrition because of their need for critical nutrients for their normal development. Older people may have problems because of aging or illness. People of college age have issues with malnutrition as well, though it may not be as severe as with the younger kids or the elderly. In people in their undergraduate years of study at a four year university, malnutrition can occur due to negligence of eating and even their diet.[9]
For many college students diets can be quite irregular. Meals are often skipped and weight and food intake management is often hectic or even non existent. Because of the disordered schedules which tend to change daily as well as every semester depending on the class load. College students must deal with many different changes in living conditions when it comes to dining. Most students are used to a structured eating pattern developed in their parent's household. When moving from the structured environment to a more casual schedule eating patterns can become rather irregular. Finances often become an issue when it comes to the type of food which is consumed and when it is consumed. Many college students have a limited money supply because of the overall expense of college. A part time job may be an option, but students may not have enough time to hold a part time job. Therefore when buying food, students will often buy as little as possible or as cheap as possible. This may include many unhealthy microwavable dishes or even certain fatty or oily snack food. These types of food alone will not provide all of the nutrients necessary to fuel a person for a day. This lack of variety in the diet of a college student is not helpful to preventing malnutrition. Many students turn to high-fat snacks. These will not satisfy their body's nutritional needs.[10] In addition to irregular eating habits some college students spend a lot of time consuming alcoholic beverages. Many go out to parties or drink with friends on a regular basis. Alcohol can interfere with nutrient absorption. The vitamins and minerals consumed from alcohol and from food consumed with alcohol have a good chance of not being absorbed. People who drink large amounts of alcohol have a good chance of becoming malnourished or losing an unhealthy amount of weight because of the absorption blocking qualities of alcohol.[11]
Students may experience a number of deficiencies because of their erratic diets.
The body has a certain number of calories that it needs to consume in order to maintain its weight. This is determined through height, weight, age, and several other factors, so it differs from person to person. When a person takes in more or less calories than that set limit, weight is either gained or lost. Alcohol provides a large amount of calories in a small quantity of liquid, which tends to lead to unwanted extra calories.[13].
| Alcoholic Drink | Calories |
|---|---|
| Beer, lite, 12 oz. | 100 |
| Beer, regular, 12 oz. | 150 |
| Frozen daiquiri, 4 oz. | 216 |
| Gin, 1.5 oz. | 110 |
| Mai tai, 4 oz. | 310 |
| Margarita, 4 oz. | 270 |
| Rum, 1.5 oz. | 96 |
| Vodka, 1.5 oz. | 96 |
| Whiskey, 1.5 oz. | 105 |
| Wine spritzer, 4 oz. | 49 |
| Wine, dessert, sweet, 4 oz. | 180 |
When drinking alcohol on a regular basis, certain vitamin and mineral deficiencies can follow. Examples of these deficiencies are as follows:
These deficiencies can lead to weight issues caused by malnutrition. When consuming alcohol these vitamins and minerals must be replaced. Often this is how certain cravings arise[15].
Binge drinking is defined as the consumption of five or more drinks within a few hours of one another on the same night. This also must occur within the past thirty days to be considered binge drinking. According to the NIAAA National Advisory Council Binge Drinking is when a person's blood alcohol concentration is at .08 or above. Binge drinking is basically defined as drinking to become intoxicated. To become intoxicated through binge drinking, means consumption of a large amount of alcohol in a short period of time.[16] This type of drinking usually occurs socially, but surpasses the health risks of social drinking. When a person drinks socially, they merely drink to relax and induce good feelings. Social Drinkers can easily limit their consumption of alcohol.[17] The definition of binge drinking does seem to vary from source to source, but the results are usually the same. The effects impact both the body and the mind. Consuming alcohol in large quantities kills brain cells and impedes liver functions. Binge drinking is usually a common theme on college campuses, but it does vary depending on the college campus. However, the average rate of total binge drinking.[18]
Key facts about college drinking:
Impact of binge drinking:
According to the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism's research people who tend to drink the largest amount of alcohol have the poorest eating habits compared to those who do not consume much alcohol at all. Those who do not drink a large quantity of alcohol seem to have the best quality diets. In this study researchers compared the Healthy Eating scores of 3,000 participants in the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey with their overall consumption of alcohol. They used frequency, quantity, and average daily volume to measure the alcohol consumption. The researchers found that as the alcohol quantity increased the Health Index scores declined. As the frequency of alcohol consumed increased the Healthy Eating scored improved. Diet quality was the poorest among those who consumed the largest quantity of alcohol. Those who drank less alcohol in an infrequent time frame had the best health index scores overall.[21]
It is normal for college students, especially freshmen, to feel abnormal levels of stress. This is more prevalent for freshmen because they are still transitioning from high school. College students can hold jobs while taking classes and may feel they have no time for studying. While freshmen might be stressed just trying to adjust to the college work load. There are hundreds of reasons for why college students get stressed but for what ever the reason is, it also can lead to weight gain. This is due to the fact that when the body is stressed it releases hormones such as adrenaline or more importantly cortisol. Cortisol has been tested to slow down the body's metabolism. Other studies have shown that when people are stressed they have cravings for foods that are high in calories such as sweet, salty, and processed foods. Not only do people crave bad food when they are nervous or stressed. They eat large quantities of it through continuous snacking even though they might not be hungry[22]. Therefore an increase in weight can be seen in freshmen students even though they are eating normally.
A study done by Jatturong R. Wichianson and colleagues at the University of Southern California showed a direct relationship between eating late at night(Night eating syndrome) and stress levels with college students. They used a standardized test to measure both the levels of NES and perceived stress each student had. The results showed that students that had higher levels of stress were more likely to have Night eating syndrome due to the inability to adapt. This study shows that students who weren't able to deal with stress appropriately were more likely to use late night eating to solve there issues.[23]
New students may also skip meals and experience increased levels of stress, which may in turn result in weight loss. The lifestyle change of entering a university coupled with a sudden fluctuation in weight are also contributing factors in malnutrition and eating disorders, which are more commonly reported among female students.
University of Guelph professors Alison Duncan and Janis Randall Simpson conducted a study of first-year female students that suggested that female students may gain only five pounds, and not fifteen.[24] Duncan and Simpson have subsequently began a study of first-year male students to see if the same weight-gain pattern holds true for them; the results came back that men gain more poundage than women (6.6 lbs compared to 5), but less than the oft-cited freshman fifteen.[25][26]
However, despite some disagreement[27] that the number is that high, there is some evidence[28] that this term used to be "freshman 10", and the increase in the number reflects the increase in the weight gained in the first year.
Nicole L. Mihalopoulos and colleagues developed at a private university in the Northeastern United States where they tested freshmen college students who lived on campus. There goal was to determine if college students did truly gain weight their freshmen year. Test subjects took an online survey to answer questions about there eating patterns, social behaviors as wells as weight. The purpose of this was to discover if the individuals showed signs of body image issues or eating disorders. 125 freshmen were eligible for testing and the average age was 18.4. The results showed that about half the test subjects gained weight. The men gained an average 3.7 lbs and women gained an average 1.7 lbs there freshmen year. These reults disproved their hypothesis that the women would have a larger weight gain then the men but this stays consistent with other studies done on the hypthesis. Even though only 5% of the test subjects showed a weight gain of 15 lbs or greator the authors of this sudy concluded that the freshmen year in college has potential for weight gain and can even lead to obescity later on in life [29].
To avoid putting on that extra weight in the first place it helps to set boundaries in order to keep the calories at a sufficient amount. A person would need to make sure that they burned off any extra calories as well. That is what would inevitably lead to unhealthy weight gain. Junk food can be the biggest enemy for a college student. It is regularly available and makes for a convenient, satisfying snack. A small snack every now and then is never a bad thing, but if the snacking becomes a regular event problems will soon arise. Snacking is not the only thing which needs to be managed. When trying to prevent the freshman fifteen from affecting you, it is important to consider that alcohol is generally packed with unwanted calories. Not only will you be damaging your liver by drinking heavily, but you will also be setting yourself up for a major weight issue. In order to solve this problem, just keep the nights of binge drinking to a minimum. An occasional beer or glass of wine with friends is fine. Just keep in mind what you are doing to your body when you consume that many empty calories. Regular exercise is important to maintaining a healthy physique and a substantial diet. The exercise will burn off those unwanted calories and help to keep a healthy body weight. College campuses usually provide plenty of gym equipment and some even provide work out classes such as aerobics, hip hop dance, zumba, spinning, and many more. Even taking a walk outside will help out. Instead of taking the bus or car, try walking or biking to classes. All of these will help to decrease the amount of unhealthy calories consumed.[30]
As soon as you get to school try to spend some time getting yourself acquainted with the area. Finding the gym is a big part of the process. Once you find it try to get a workout schedule together. Working out three to five days a week will help fend off the dreaded freshman fifteen. If this is difficult for you to do on your own, finding a workout buddy might help to keep you motivated. Having someone to workout with will help to keep you accountable for getting your workout in. They will also make sure the workout you get in is a quality one. If a buddy is not an option for any reason, campus gyms often offer classes such as yoga, Pilates, or spinning for free. These can make working out easier since it is with a group of people. A class can also help to make working out more fun and less of a chore. Intramurals and club sports can also have the same effect by keeping you moving throughout the week.[31]
It is easy avoid the freshman fifteen if you just put in the effort to stay active every day. This does not necessarily mean that you have to hit the gym every day. There are several small and simple alterations which can be made which enhance a persons overall activity. Something as simple as walking to class instead of driving is a way to get a little bit more exercise into your life. Most college campuses are designed to be easy to walk, so this change is simple and effective. When going out to a party or hanging out at a bar, it is easy to find yourself sitting in a corner or at the bar just sipping on a drink. By just sitting at the bar or not moving around all of the calories from the alcohol are just being taken in. An easy way to avoid sitting around is to get up and dance. Dancing is a great aerobic exercise and burns a lot of calories. If there is no option to dance, a light beer is a healthier option. Also, binge drinking is an easy way to fall prey to those unnecessary calories. Cutting back on the excessive drinking is a simple way to cut the calories as well. When hanging out in the dorm with friends, instead of just watching television, try to find a more active things to do. Try looking up dances or exercise videos online and do them with friends. Joining an intramural team is a great way to stay healthy. Doing activities with friends keeps you moving and can be more fun. Also, one of the easiest things to do to get a little bit of exercise is to avoid the elevators. Taking the stairs is a simple way to burn some extra calories. It may take more time, but it will help in the long run. Just by staying active, avoiding the freshman fifteen can be a breeze. An active person does not even have to stress all that much about counting calories because just by going through a normal day, those extra calories will be burnt off.[32]
Brown C. The information trail of the 'Freshman 15'--a systematic review of a health myth within the research and popular literature. Health Info Libr J. 2008 Mar;25(1):1-12. kmlml,ll
|
|
Wikis
Quiz
Map
Search