Fear of the freshman 15 abounds in college dorms. The perfect body you sculpted in high school is disappearing. The ability to eat egregious amounts of food without gaining weight may be lost. Nobody wants to peak in high school.
The truth of the matter is that it’s not really true. Yes, many students may gain weight their freshman year, but it is not anything near 15 pounds, or the “Mizzou 22.” In reality, it’s closer to 2.5 or 3 pounds, which is not nearly as frightening a number. Through phonics and fear, the number 15 just sort of stuck.
The myth that these mystery pounds are put on due to the all-you-can-eat buffet style food at dining halls is easily debunked. What will actually cause weight gain is stress and lack of exercise. When you are making the big transition into college, your schedule may seem overwhelming. Homework, class, social events and whatever other time commitments ail you are the real culprits. All of these obligations generally rank much higher on a list of priorities than hitting the gym, and that’s why the pounds truly start to pile up. Lack of exercise and not burning the calories that you do happen to consume is what can actually add on those few extra pounds. Especially for students who played a sport in high school, you are no longer committing those 10-plus hours a week to vigorous exercise. Your metabolism is going to get quite the shock when that suddenly stops.
Another big cause of gaining those terrifying few pounds is stress-eating. Its no surprise that college students often find themselves under a mountain of stress. Tests, relationships, parents, missing pets and other stressors all start to pile up, and then you turn to your one true reliable friend: food. When stress-eating, you rarely find yourself hunkered over a bowl of broccoli or some non-GMO quinoa. It’s ice cream, fried foods or candy bars.
The final and most vehemently denied cause belongs to this special guy: alcohol. The calories in alcohol will leave you mouth-gaping and staring at your Solo cup feeling shocked and betrayed by your plastic friend. Take this into account: One shot of vodka is 100 calories. One can of beer is 150 calories. One glass of wine is 145 calories. So when you see that party animal take take down five shots, know that they essentially just ate three cookies from Insomnia Cookies in 15 seconds. As soon as you finish your second beer, you just ate a slice of pizza from Shakespeare’s.
Of course, there’s the entirely separate, but related, category of drunk food. Similar to the kinds of food you stress-eat, except now the validity of your decision making is much lower, and it’s bound to be salty. There’s a reason Wise Guys and Insomnia are open past 2 a.m. They’re waiting for people with impaired judgment to stumble through their doors, feeling like they’ve arrived at the land of milk and honey, or manage their fine motor skills well enough to order a delivery on their phones. Either way, drunk food is a major calorie contributor.
Gaining weight freshman year isn’t the biggest deal in the world. It’s much more important that you get adjusted, get your work done and learn to deal with the changes. But, if you really want to avoid it, walk to class, take the stairs and get good at beer pong.
