It is the end of summer and college students prepare to leave to start their first year of college. It is the first time they are on their own and have a whole new schedule and life to juggle; with this often comes weight gain as well-often referred to as “The Freshman 15.”

They buy their own meals, they do their own laundry, they are introduced to beer and other alcoholic beverages, they stay up late partying, order in pizza at 2 AM, go to sleep really late and sleep in, often skip breakfast and stay up late studying and eating munchy snack foods. 

I did a little research to see why people though they gained weight in college. I also tried to find out more about where the number 15 came from when since most of my suvey respondants actually said they only gained about 10 pounds.  

So I decided to use my math skills to see where 15 might come from. On average most freshman probably drink about 3 nights a week (Thursday-Saturday). Let’s say you have 2-3 drinks which have an average of 100 calories, then you order pizza at the end of the night and have about 2 pieces at approximately 230 calories a slice (unless you order thin crust which is by far the better choice). Then you probably sleep in and grab a bagel or a muffin from Starbucks along the way which has about 430 calories. So now we are already up to an extra 1090 calories per day. So per week that is approxilmately 3300 calories extra that you most probably did not consume while you were in high school. It takes an extra 3500 calories to gain 1 pound.  So you can see how quickly this can all add up. This number is on top of the daily calories consumed. Many girls especially will often not eat very much during the day to save on calories. This actually usually backfires and in the long run causes more damage to your metabolism. I polled about 30 people-some currently in college and some years out of college. Interestingly, most polled actually said they gained about 10 pounds and the ones that did not gain weight in college played a club sport or even took a physical activity as a class they could get credit for! Below is some other helpful advice and input:

• Walk to class and anywhere else you can (on top of exercising)
• Find a workout buddy and make each other accountable for regular workouts
• Join at least 1 club sport 
• Sign up for a PE type class in the AM where you can credit and get a workout in

• Start lifting weights regularly (at least 2 times a week). It will change your metabolism so you burn more calories even when you are not moving
• Interval training will help you burn calories even when you are done with your workout
• Make sure to get at least 7-8 hours of sleep a night. Low levels of leptin (help signal hunger and satiety) have been shown to be linked to obesity
• Make sure you eat breakfast. Your metabolism is like an engine and it needs fuel to work. Breakfast gives it a jump start in the AM
• Eat 5-6 mini meals a day
• Make sure you are eating enough calories to sustain your healthy body weight. You will actually slow your metabolism down if you eat too few calories