Student Body’s


University life can be completely amazing. There are the hours spent hanging out around campus with your friends, the freedom of living away from home, and the long awaited sense of coming into your own. The majority of adults regard their university experience as the greatest time of their life. As great as campus life is, there lays a looming dark side to the experience; This incident strikes fear in the hearts of students all over the world, causing some to stay hidden in the resources of their dorm rooms and study halls; the culprit of which I speak? The dreaded Freshman 15.


The Freshman 15 is a term used to describe the all too common weight gain experienced by most university students during their first year of attendance. In a study done by the Department of Human Health and Nutritional Sciences it was found that from the time students left high school to the end of their first year at university there was an average weight gain of 6.6 pounds. Another study conducted by the Center for Behavioral Epidemiology and Community Health reported that University age women gained weight 36 times faster than other women in the community.

Experts think that the increase in weight gain during university can be credited to a variety of factors such as; the stress of being away from home, the change in sleep patterns, a decrease in mandatory physical activity (phys-ed classes), the reliance on processed foods and the increase in alcohol consumption.

 The good news is that there are ways to minimize the weight gain.  Studies have shown that student’s intent on keeping the freshman 15 at bay should adopt a holistic approach to maintaining a healthy body composition. The first piece of the Freshman 15 weight loss puzzle is to re-establish proper sleeping habits. Researchers found that people who sleep two to four hours a night are 73% more likely to be obese than those who get seven to nine hours. Those who get five or more hours of sleep a night are 50% more likely to be obese than normal sleepers. Those who sleep six hours are 23% more likely to be obese, whereas those who get 10 or more hours are 11% less likely to be obese.

The second component to the maintaining a healthy university weight is to return to the current activity level experienced in high school.  In yet another study, researchers at Division of Surveillance and Epidemiology, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found that on average a third of high school age students reported exercising 20 minutes or more in physical education class three to five times per week compared to the 61% of female college students who reported that they performed absolutely no vigorous or moderate exercise. It is commonly accepted that exercisers who exercise frequency of exercise is more important that duration when weight loss is the goal. Students who partake in as little as 20 minutes of moderate to intense exercise daily are more likely to retain they’re pre university body than their inactive counterparts.


A third and vitally important factor to be considered when weight management is the issue is the consumption of highly processed foods. Typically the student diet, based on convenience and value has been a cause of increased weight gain. The recent increase in health awareness has caused some schools to adopt a healthier menu, but there are still many institutions that are offering their students low nutrition meals. For weight loss success to occur students must make proper food selection their primary goal at each feeding. The choice of healthier snacks such as apples and organic nuts in conjunction with well-balanced meals throughout the day will go a long way in keeping the pounds off.

Finally students must become responsible in the consumption of alcoholic beverages when weight management is the goal. In Glen R Hanson’s, Drugs and Society He states that “The total amount of alcohol consumed by college students annually is 430 million gallons, that Is enough for every American college and University to fill an Olympic size swimming pool”. The problem with alcohol over consumption is that it can lead to an increase in body fat by decreasing a demand for other foods. In essence the calories supplied by the alcohol signal the body that its caloric demands have been met, even though adequate nutrition isn’t present. Secondly each gram of alcohol provides 9 calories making a girls night out equivalent to a days worth of binge eating.


The reality is that the dreaded Freshman 15 doesn’t have to happen to anyone. By following the advice laid out in this article students can enter university without the fear of gaining weight. For an in-depth look at the exercise and nutrition required to
“Drop the Freshman 15” stay tuned for part 2 of this article.