'Freshman 15' a Myth?
Weight gain during first year of college may be less than feared

(HealthDay News) -- Teens who go away to college sometimes survive that first year on cafeteria burritos, doughnuts, soft drinks, pizza and midnight snacks.

And by the time they come home for the summer, they bring along those dreaded "freshman 15" extra pounds.

But a small study offers some hope that the damage to the waistline might not be that bad.

The study of 36 freshmen at Auburn University in Alabama found an average gain of 1.9 pounds during the first semester of the first year at college and an average gain of 4.8 pounds for the year. Men gained an average of 5.4 pounds, and women gained an average of 3.2 pounds.

In the study, about three-fourths of the 26 female and 10 male participants gained weight during their first year of college. The overall range covered a loss of 5.8 pounds to a gain of 13 pounds. About 21 percent gained five pounds or more.

"We're speculating it's a variety of factors" that cause the weight gain, Sareen Gropper, a professor of nutrition and food science at Auburn and an author of the study, told HealthDay . "For some kids, it's decreases in physical activity, and it may have to do with all-you-can-eat dining halls. Some kids say, 'I can go there six times a day and eat for free.' A lot of kids are also eating out tremendously and eating junk food after 10" at night.

"When you put someone on a cafeteria diet, three times a day, seven days a week, it's like being on a cruise. You have unlimited food, and it's very difficult to moderate," Arlene Spark, director of nutrition at Hunter College in New York City , told HealthDay . "When we give rats Purina rat chow, which is very boring, they eat as much as they need, and they stop. But if you give the same rats frosted flakes and fatty foods, stuff that's really tasty, they get very heavy, just like we do. We do have an animal model for this."

She said it's "worth reminding people that all-you-can-eat is very challenging for us."

And she says there's an important lesson in the study.

"It was such a small study, but it does open up the notion that post-adolescence kids, when they're left to their own devices, do gain weight," Spark said.

And from whence the idea of the "freshman 15"? The researchers say that no one's quite sure about the origin of the idea and there's little scientific data to support the belief.

An earlier study, they said, found that college freshman had an average weight increase of 2.7 pounds over the year, with men reporting an average gain of 3.7 pounds and women gaining an average of 1.7 pounds. In that study, only 5 percent of the participants reported gaining 15 pounds.

On the Web

To learn more about healthy eating, visit the American Dietetic Association online.

SOURCES: HealthDay News ; Sareen Gropper, Ph.D., R.D., professor and graduate program director, Department of Nutrition and Food Science, Auburn University, Auburn, Ala.; Arlene Spark, Ed.D., director of nutrition, Hunter College, New York City; April 6, 2008, presentation, Experimental Biology meeting, San Diego
Author: Anne Thompson
Publication Date: May 31, 2009
Copyright © 2009 ScoutNews, LLC. All rights reserved.