Freshman Fifteen
As alarming as it may sound, “freshman fifteen” is no urban legend. It has been reported amongst college students, more commonly by females, that they gain an average of 15 pounds or even as much as .5 pounds a week over the course of their first year in college. This is often attributed to drastic lifestyle changes upon entering college as it offers a great deal of temptations that makes healthy living difficult to maintain.
Dorm Food
A major cause of this growing “freshman fifteen” phenomenon is change in diet. When you live at home, your diet consists of home cooked meals that are somewhat portion controlled with the occasional junk food/snack that you have conned your parents into buying for you at the supermarket. However, when you enter college and begin life in the dorms, your daily meals expand to a heavenly all you can eat buffet style diet that is adorned with a wide assortment of decadent dessert options that is rich in calories and carbohydrates. Since parents would no longer be around to control what we can or cannot eat, we become like a child in a candy store and gorge to our hearts content.
Fast Food
Fast food franchises build a lot of their businesses around college campus’ with their tasty although extremely saturated food that conveniently fits within student’s budget. With the added convenience of the drive through window, it is conducive to their “on the go” schedule making it especially difficult for them to pass up over other more nutritious options that consume more time. The outcome of these unhealthy eating habits is an ever growing epidemic that has plagued many first year college students and dubbed the term, ‘freshman fifteen’. Ever watched Supersize Me? I rest my case.
Inactivity
Their demanding schedule denies them the time to maintain a daily work out routine or engage in any team sports that they might have previously been involved in high school. Staying physically active is especially vital in counteracting the repercussions of their unhealthy stressors.
Alcohol
College students like to party, and of course no college party is complete without booze. And it is no secret that these social events do not enforce the drinking age so understandably teens succumb to temptations and engage in frequent empty caloric binging.
Bad sleeping habits
College students are notorious for sleep deprivation and irregular sleeping patterns from engaging in frequent all nighters. These types of conditions exhaust and deplete their bodies of essential nutrients which in turn throws off their metabolism and render them into a state of physiological disarray.
Eating disorders
As teens start to experience their unexpected weight gain, they suffer from poor self image. In severe cases, particularly with females, they resort to desperate unhealthy measures hoping for immediate results, but instead fall victim to malnourishment or other eating disorders.
Upon entering college, students are ill prepared to handle their sudden lifestyle changes that set them off into downward spiral into become a statistic of “freshman fifteen”. However by arming yourself with all this valuable information, you can start setting nutritional and lifestyle goals, disciplining yourself and avoid getting ambushed by the dangers of your first year in college.
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