You do a lot of growing while you are in college. Your intellect, cultural awareness, and sense of responsibility will all grow as you go through your years in the hallowed halls of your university. You grow emotionally and academically, maturing as your studies teach you about the wide world that’s out there and the different peoples who live in it. But while all this positive growth is occurring, there is often another trend of expansion that most students regret to see: the waistline growth.
This invasion of extra pounds is dubbed the "freshman 15," so-called because it is believed that most freshmen students will gain approximately 15 pounds before the beginning of summer break. Research suggests that this moniker may have a ring of truth behind it. A study conducted by Washington University in St. Louis found that a whopping 70 percent of students packed on a "significant amount of weight" during their freshman and sophomore years in college. The "significant amount" discussed in the research is a gain of about ten pounds or more. This is a great deal of weight to be gaining within a year and the statistics show that it is nearly inescapable. Yet, students can successfully combat the Freshman 15 with a bit of insight into how and why so many of their peers gain weight in the early years of their university career.
The driving factor behind sudden college weight gain is diet. Most students are learning to feed themselves for the first time instead of just devouring whatever someone else puts on the dinner table. They also do not have their parents to eye them in a disapproving manner when they eat too many potato chips or chow down on pizza rolls for two weeks in a row. Instead, these students can essentially eat whatever they want and whenever they want. While this would not be an issue if proper nutritional concerns were addressed, many students simply are too impatient to eat healthy. Grabbing something off of the $1 fast food menu is much easier and satisfying than spending $20 on a grocery cart full of vegetables, whole grains, and lean meats that require cleaning, preparation, and cooking. In addition, when faced with a choice between greasy pizzas, cheeseburgers, hot dogs, and a mediocre salad bar, most students would hardly even give the salad bar a second glance, except to snag a few tomatoes and lettuce leaves for the burgers. Unhealthy eating inevitably causes rapid weight gain.
Students need to mind what they eat if they do not desire to go up a few pant sizes by the time bikini season returns. Stocking dorm rooms with healthy snacks, like vegetable chips and fresh fruits, will encourage students to dine healthier.