Freshman 15 Sociology

Many people have heard of the dreaded “Freshman 15,” but is it based in truth or myth? Research by Smith-Jackson and Reel show that although most freshman do change in weight their first year, the clear majority do not actually gain fifteen pounds. Most of the studies they reviewed show that weight gain, when it occurs, is less than half of the popularized fifteen pounds (Smith-Jackson). This research shows that it is not accurate to call the change in weight the “Freshman 15,” but there is still a significant weight change, typically increasing, in the majority of students in the studies. Why do some students gain weight or more weight than others? This is a question that Pliner and Saunders attempted to answer in their study. They wanted …show more content…
One group in the study lived on campus and the other lived at home. Living on campus signified a change in the students’ eating environment and living at home signified that the students’ eating environment did not change. The study showed that not all students are equally vulnerable to weight gain. This suggests that it is not just starting college that causes students to gain weight, it is other factors, such as a change in eating environment. Ironically, they found that students labeled as high in dietary restraint, meaning that they were seemingly more aware of what they were eating, were more likely to gain weight. Stress could be a possibility for the difference between the two groups, but a few studies have shown that the different living conditions do not result in differing stress levels …show more content…
Nelson et al. performed a study asking college youth what they thought the determining factors regarding this weight change are. The students in the study listed multiple ideas, but a few stood out. The availability of food on campus is much greater than what they were used to at home (Nelson et al.). This can be seen in the buffet-style dining halls in many colleges. This all-you-can-eat approach is also cited as a factor for possible weight gain by Serlachius et al. This style of eating not only increases access to more, often unhealthy, food, but also removes the ability to know nutritional facts if they are not easily accessible. Even if students from the study were not eating in the dining halls, they had issues with food. They mentioned that healthy foods are typically more expensive than unhealthier options. One student said, “Just a normal sandwich is $5.00 and a small salad is $5.00, but when you compare that to the fried chicken, that's $2.00 for a pack of eight.” The discrepancy in price between healthy and unhealthy options, exemplified above, is what often leads students to choose unhealthy options even when they know the nutritional facts (Nelson et al.). This idea, as well as the food independence, was shared by a large portion of the women in a study conducted by Smith-Jackson and Reel

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