Freshman 15: Fact or Fiction?

As most of you have probably noticed, I get my blog ideas for something that someone has said to me. Yesterday on the bus back to our apartment, my roommate Bailey said, “Our campus is so huge and I feel like I’m always walking. It must be impossible for anyone to get the freshman 15 here.” And I realized that I probably walk a couple of miles each day that I’m on Penn State’s campus. Between getting to other people’s apartments, classroom buildings, running errands downtown, etc. I manage to get a lot of walking done–not to mention the fact that I’m always late, so my pace gets pretty fast. So I decided to do a little research and see if anybody still gets the dreaded freshman 15 our parents warn us about

The Los Angeles Times had an article a little over a year ago reporting that a studies done by an Ohio State professor and a University of Michigan group both proved that the freshman 15 is only a myth anyways. On average the weight gain is about 3 pounds. And get this: even young adults who do not go away to college gain those three pounds during that same time period in their lives. It’s more about a switch in your metabolism at that age, so for the most part this has been nothing more than a media myth all along!

The myth originated in 1985 when a study showed that the average weight gain for college freshman was 8-9 pounds. But the study was done at a small college and only on women, discrediting the information due to the small scope of research attributed. So ultimately it was nothing to be concerned about! but that doesn’t mean that we shouldn’t watch what we are eating as college students. Without mom and dad cooking for you it can often times be easier to rely on a less nutritious meal to curb the hunger. And we all know that our life style practices aren’t quite as healthy when we’re away at college.

Join a gym or take a jog around your apartment complex or find fun, cheap recipes online that are quick and easy to make for yourself. Buy more veggies than you do chips and you’ll be good to go Or hey, if all else fails just transfer to Penn State. They make you take physical education courses and they make you walk all over just to get to your classes! Just ask myself or Bailey.