College students often put on weight during their freshman year, and a lack of structured exercise may be largely to blame, a new study suggests.
Weight gain is so common among first-year college students that it has spawned the phrase “the freshman 15” — though that figure is something of a myth.
More often, studies have found, college freshmen gain about 8 pounds over the academic year.
The new study — which followed freshmen at the University of Georgia (UGA), in Athens — found a similar pattern. Students gained 3 to 4 pounds, on average, during their first semester.
As for why, it appeared a big culprit was lack of vigorous exercise — the kind that gets people breathing hard and working up a sweat.
At the start of the semester, 40% of freshmen weren’t getting any vigorous exercise. By semester’s end, a full 70% weren’t, the study found.
“They just aren’t finding ways to be active to that degree,” senior researcher Sami Yli-Piipari, an associate professor at UGA’s College of Education says.
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There can be various reasons, according to Yli-Piipari. A big one, he shares, is that during high school kids often have regular,
structured exercise — playing sports or taking physical education classes.
And for many, that stops once they go to college.
Plus, Yli-Piipari says, college freshmen have a lot of “competing interests,” including hitting the books. Past studies have found that students at more academically rigorous universities tend to gain more weight.
In this study, some students did remain more active than others. Those who used campus recreational facilities, which offer options like fitness classes and club sports, typically got more vigorous exercise.
The same was true of freshmen whose friends were active — which is not surprising since it does take motivation to regularly exercise at that level, Yli-Piipari notes.
He said giving college students more options for group exercise, which can help sustain motivation, might help.
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The findings — recently published in Journal of American College Health — are based on 166 UGA freshmen who were surveyed at the beginning and end of their first semester in 2019.
Some past research, Yli-Piipari shares, has suggested that living on campus and having a meal plan — and 24/7 access to food — can fuel weight gain.
Contrary to that, his team found no connection between on-campus living or meal-plan status and students’ weight gain.
That does not negate the importance of diet, however.
The survey did not dig into students’ eating habits. Nor did it ask about
alcohol, a big potential calorie source, Connie Diekman, a registered dietitian and former president of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics says.
Diekman spent years working with college students as director of university nutrition at Washington University in St. Louis.
She says that one of the biggest challenges for students is the lack of a consistent schedule.
“In college, classes are at different times throughout the week, making mealtimes, activity schedules, and even sleep schedules all different,” Diekman adds.
That can make it hard to set an exercise routine and it can also foster less-than-ideal eating habits — like going long stretches without eating, then overindulging when mealtime comes around.
How to prevent college weight gain
Diekman’s advice to students is to set a daily schedule — sticking to specific routines around meals and snacks, exercise, course work and sleep.
She also suggests that freshman take their first few weeks on campus to explore different options for exercise.
“Each week, check out one new recreation class or activity club so that after the first month you can decide what would be your best choice,” Diekman says.
For students who need help with healthy eating, she notes that many universities offer some kind of nutrition counseling or classes.
When it comes to exercise, habits do form early in life. Yli-Piipari says kids who truly enjoy being active are more likely to keep it up as they grow older.
“If they value exercise in their lives,” he says, “they’ll be motivated to seek out opportunities for it in college.”
The National Society of High School Scholars has advice on staying healthy in college.
