TOP 5 CAUSES OF “FRESHMAN 15” (WEEK3)

 

 

French Fries

 

Hello There!

Thank you for stopping by.

If you went to university or are currently going to university in America, you probably know what ‘Freshman 15’ is. But if you’re like me that came to America for university from a different country, you will have no idea what it means.

Basically, in America each year/level in the university has a name.

1st Year – Freshman Year

2nd Year- Sophomore Year

3rd Year- Junior Year

4th Year-Senior Year

Now you understand that ‘freshman’ is the name given to first year students. The 15 means 15lbs (pounds). Therefore ‘Freshman 15’ is a common myth that university students gain 15lbs in their first year.

After being in an American university for four years, I have learned a lot about this myth. As a student, I have taken a couple of on-campus jobs. However, the job experience that inspires me to write this post is being a student worker at our campus bistro or cafeteria.

There are different reasons why the myth exist, but here are the top five reasons that stand out the most to me. These five reasons are for a typical freshman who lives in the dorms, has a meal plan, maybe has a part-time job and or plays sports.

TOP 5 CAUSES OF “FRESHMAN 15”

1.      BUDGET

Piggy Bank

 

 

      In their first year of college, freshmen usually have a meal plan. A meal plan is paid for along with tuition and room/board. Once you have a meal plan, you can use whatever value you’ve purchased throughout the semester to buy food in the bistro/cafeteria. Since they have to eat what is available at the bistro, they really have no little control of what they eat.

 

 

 

 

2.      TIME

Tired Student

A fulltime student has at least 12 credits of classes. These classes do not necessarily take a lot of time. However, the study time, group work and extra-curricular activities are the things that take time. At this point, freshmen are new to the routine and find it difficult to adjust so the stay up late nights and sleep at odd hours of the day. This time factor causes the freshmen to eat whenever they are awake.

 

3.      STRESS

Study Notes

The pressure from reading, turning in assignment, group-work and tests can cause stress. I have found that this stress makes freshmen seek satisfaction and most of them settle for food as a safe form of satisfaction. Working in the Bistro, I have had freshmen come up and make statements like “Can I get two orders of mac-n-cheese bites? I just got done with a test, I think I need to treat myself.” By the way these are deep fried bite-size mac-n-cheese portions. Mind you, this might be before or after a heavy meal already and they might just get ice cream (because Penn State’s creamery makes awesome ice-cream) or a milk shake to go with it.

 

 

 

4.      INCREASE IN ALCOHOL INTAKE:

Drunk Freshman

 

      Even though most freshmen haven’t gotten to the legal drinking age, for most of them it is their first time away from home. This freedom makes them vulnerable to peer pressure that leads to increase in their alcohol intake. I have to mention that my campus is a dry campus and that means no alcohol is allowed on campus period. However, students will sometimes go outside campus or find a way to drink and break rules.  

 

 

5.      ENERGY DRINKS: I didn’t know how much energy drinks students consumed until I started working at the bistro. Every time we had to restock drinks, energy drinks were always almost all gone. Because of the high caffeine content in most energy drinks, freshmen drink a lot of it to stay awake and have energy. However, the high sugar content in them contribute to the ‘Freshman15’.

I hope this has been helpful to you, please feel free to share in the comment section any other causes of the ‘Freshman 15’ you know. If it is called a different name in your country, please share it with us, it would be great to hear from you!

Thank you for reading.

… Coming up on the next blog: 5 WAYS TO AVOID FRESHMAN 15