The Leading Causes of the Freshman Fifteen

Many freshmen in college, girls especially, leave home as tiny little skinny things and come home for winter break with quite a bit more meat on their bones. For those college students that would like to avoid gaining the infamous "Freshman Fifteen," it is important to understand the main causes of this typical weight gain. The main causes of gaining the weight while at college include: lack of activity, cafeteria food, changed eating habits and alcohol.

Although, many college students are physically active and go to the gym, it is often hard to be as active as they were in high school. This is an especially hard task for those students that were highly involved in athletics in high school but do not play on their college's athletic teams. While, working out for a hour or hour and a half four or five days a week is great, often students simply just do not burn as many calories as they had while in high school. Therefore it is important that if decreased activity is something a student is dealing with that they also adapt their eating habits to keep from gaining weight.

Most college freshman live in the dorms or at least eat on campus, the all-you-can-eat serving style at most college cafeterias can be overwhelming to students. They often eat more than they did before they were in college and often the food related choices they make in the cafeteria are not the best when considered by the amount of calories or nutrients.

Along with eating almost all or all of their meals in a buffet setting the eating and general living habits of colleges students are different then earlier in their lives. Students tend to be awake later at night and sleep until later in the morning. All nighters and long nights of studying are not uncommon. The effects of changed sleeping patterns on the a students metabolism paired with pizza and/or other junk food while studying late at night can lead to weight gain.

Alcoholic beverages are generally high in calories. Yet, the weight gain related to alcohol use also stems from additional behaviors that typically take place during periods of alcohol consumption. The greasy foods that are consumed when a college student is drinking also increase the possibility of them gaining weight. Partying has many consequences. Some of these consequences that can lead to a student gaining weight include that hangovers cause a person to be less active, so they do not burn the necessary amount of calories. When people eat high calorie foods at all odd hours of the night their metabolism is not as high so they store more of the calories as fat. So, not only are the huge number of calories in alcoholic beverages a cause of the "freshman fifteen" but the behaviors that go along with alcohol consumption can also cause a college student to gain weight.

By knowing about some of the leading causes of why students gain weight in college, they can be more easily avoided and a student that does not want to gain the "freshman fifteen" will not.