Freshman 15: Fact or Fiction

Ahh tis’ that time of year again, back to school! How can I tell you ask? Well between the backed up traffic/lack of parking spots on campus, dozens of annoying banks trying to get me to sign up for a credit card, and freshmen walking around like lost puppies, sometimes with tears in their eyes, I think it’s a pretty safe bet. With the return of freshmen, comes the threat of the mythical freshman 15. However, just because you may not be a freshman, you are not exempt from weight gain. Quite frankly,  it only gets more difficult to avoid weight gain from here on out. Welcome to the process of aging my friends, where your metabolism starts to slow down and you can no longer eat or drink whatever you want without gaining weight! First, let me first address this whole “freshman 15” thing.

Freshman 15: Fact or Fiction

The freshman 15 is in most cases fiction. It is fiction in that most first year college students gain on average around five pounds or so. This is good news I suppose, but for those of you have never taken a stats class, this is just an average and there are outliers to this. Some people gain more, some people gain less, and some people just don’t gain anything.  

Well Beth, what causes weight gain?

Scientifically speaking, eating more calories than you burn.  Is there any specific food(s) that make you fat such as fat or carbs or sugar? Without getting too nerdy on you, the answer is no. Eating fat doesn’t make you fat in that singing Beyonce in your car does not in fact make you Beyonce.

Carbs and sugar, are not necessarily bad and are part of a balanced diet. What is the secret you ask? Everything in moderation. For example, I love pizza and COULD eat it every day in the dining hall, but I don’t.  Most people tend to over do it on fat, sugar, and carbs, which leads to weight gain. 

The part where weight gain gets a little more intricate is the part where your body burns calories and all of the factors that can affect that. Without getting into too much detail, some of these factors include: age, sex, muscle mass, stress, etc. I'll save those for another blog though.

How can I avoid weight gain?

It is pretty simple actually. Eat right and exercise--No need for some magical (and expensive) diet pill, detoxes, or cleanses. I don’t know about you, but I am no Kanye…

Breaking it down

The freshman 15 is a myth, but it is not as mythical as big foot or aliens, so keep that in mind. I mean weight gain during freshmen year may or may not have even happened to yours truly.

Gasp! I know right, you probably don’t want to think about your nutrition hero like that, but I’m just going to be real with you; I put my pants on one leg at a time just like everybody else J Well if you will excuse me, I need to go move my car (Note: I may have a touch of road rage)...

Until next time!

Keep it Fresh,

Keep it Green,

Beth