Today’s workout began with 20 minutes of incline walking on the treadmill (4.0 pace with the incline varying between 7.0 and 9.0). I then meandered into the weight room to tackle this upper body workout:
Breakfast
Today’s breakfast was overnight oats… Yes, I made another batch after I ate the first one last night.
In the mix:
- 2/3 cup old fashioned oats
- 1 tablespoon chia seeds
- 1/3 cup milk
- 1 cup strawberry banana Greek yogurt
- 1 sliced banana (added this morning)
Looks gross, tastes great!
Freshman 15 Myth
This morning when I was at the gym, a new study was mentioned on the news stating that the Freshman 15 is “just a myth.” Study results stated that, in reality, women gain an average of 2.4 pounds during their freshman year while men gain an average of 3.4 pounds.
I remember hearing about the Freshman 15 in high school and even on the tours of various college campuses when tour guides would joke about it when discussing the meal plan options.
The study, conducted by research scientists at Ohio State University’s Center for Human Resource Research, examined weight data from 7,418 young people and found that female students gain on average seven to nine pounds and male students gain 12 to 13 pounds during college.
The study found that no more than 10 percent of college freshman gained 15 pounds or more.
I always figured the Freshman 15 was fairly accurate, but looked at it more as an overall college weight gain rather than weight gained solely during freshman year. To me, bodies are still changing when students enter college and students are still evolving into men and women, so some weight gain seems natural.
Of course tons of beer and excessive trips to the dining hall can make weight gain increase at a more rapid rate, but, according to the study, it seems like the Freshman 15 is more or less a myth.
Questions of the Morning
- Are you surprised by the findings reported by this study?
- Was the Freshman 15 ever a concern for you?
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The freshman 15 happened to me. I blame it on all the unhealthy eating and lack of exercise. I think college is a rough transition for some people, and being out of the normal routine, plus stress and a different social atmosphere lead to overeating and being more sedentary. But now 10 years later I’ve managed to get back to my high school weight, and I feel so much better!
I am surprised. I yo-yoed on my weight a LOT in college. Now that I am out of college and working for the same university, I kick myself for not using the (free!) gym more. But I didn’t want to exercise then and always said I didn’t have time (which was a lie). I definitely gained weight (probably around 30 or more pounds) my freshman year.
I agree that not many people gain 15 pounds just during freshman year, however over the course of the four years I think that numbers pretty realistic. Actually, most of my friends gained weight their last two years, especially senior year when we were all 21+ and used any excuse to drink and celebrate/mourn our last year of college
I actually lost weight because I went to a school that didn’t have its own dorms, so since we had a floor of another school’s dorm and it was NYC there definitely wasn’t a huge dining hall/meal plan. I lived off cup o’ noodles! I also wanted to thank you because you’ve been my motivation to start at a CrossFit training gym and while it’s insanely hard and I feel like I’m not where I should be, I have set mini goals for myself along the way – like you! – and made the decision to stick with it no matter what!
i’m not surprised. i think there is more focus than ever on healthy living, especially in the college environment. colleges tend to have fantastic workout areas, healthy food options — not to mention most students walk to class.
i did gain weight my freshman year, but that was because i was totally oblivious to my eating/exercise habits. once i became aware, the weight fell off with easy changes.
I didn’t go away for school freshman year, though I did move in with my dad after living with my mom, sister, and stepdad for several years, because it was a closer house to my college.
I do think I ate more junky foods because I didn’t eat well rounded family meals cooked by my mom (who is totally health concious), but I also didn’t gain weight because I was not a drinker/partier at all and rarely went out to eat because I kind of had no social life in first year.
I’ve actually lost weight since first year, but it was weight I’d had on since 11th grade or so!
I definitely gained the freshman 15, but just my first semester. Growing up we rarely ever went out to eat, and always just ate my mom’s food from scratch, so when given the opportunity to have french fries with every meal, I went for it! The drinking and midnight pizzas didnt help either. When all my clothes started to feel tight I realized i had gained just over 15 lbs! It didn’t take long for me to get back on track, work out, eat healthy like my Mama taught me, and taking a required nutrition class kind of put me over the edge and a health freak was born!
i actually lost weight my freshman year in college…i had access to a gym year-round and that’s where i met most of my friends, so we were all able to workout as a means of socializing. i loved it!
I heard about the new research on this….I don’t know what I necessarily believe it should be called, but I know that I definitely gained weight my freshman year in college. My mind wasn’t focused on healthy eating or exercise, it was instead set on being with new friends, trying to figure out how taking college classes really works, and really just surviving all the changes that were going on in life. Sometime during my sophomore year is when I started to reevaluate my lifestyle and started making healthier choices daily.
I think the “freshman 15” is more so just a joke, and even though it’s true at times, the saying probably puts a negative pressure on too many young women (and I’m sure some men too).
I was actually the smallest my freshman year because of walking so much to and from class.
I think the first year of the “real world” is where the weight gain sets in. Too much time behind a desk and not enough time walking, playing intramurals and going to the gym whenever you wanted.
I experienced the sophomore 15 rather than the freshman one. I think it took a year for my metabolism to slow down after spending so much time in high school active and constantly on some sports team.
I was definitely a victim of the Freshman 15. From all the binge drinking and subsequent fatty foods I gained about 20lbs by the spring of sophomore year. I’m now a senior and after exercising, curtailing my drinking and eating right I’m only 2lbs away from my pre-college weight!
The Freshman 15 is no myth, I’ve seen so many girls (and guys) gain 15+ pounds but I will agree that it’s not a majority and there are probably more people who don’t gain any weight at all than who do.
I’m not sure how I feel about this study, but I definitely feel that I was so scared to gain the freshman 15. It was a completely daunting thought it my mind of gaining so much weight in such a short period of time.
Hi Julie,
I have been reading your blog ever since you started and have never commented but I am looking for some advice.
I work as a consultant for a major client service firm. I travel every Monday at 6 AM and typically fly home late on Thursdays. I work at a client site and live in a hotel room. I just started a new project in Illinois and the hotel gym is closed for renovations until the end of December. There is a club we can use as an alternative but it closes at 9 PM. I typically work from 6:30 AM – 9 or 10 PM every night and am with my project team the entire time. I normally return to my room and work for another few hours. We are seldom done working in the day light so running outside is limited to AMs (but they often are blown off due to lack of sleep) This means little movement during the day and either meals eaten at my desk or big team dinners.
Aside from my hectic work life, my father passed away unexpectedly in May. As a result from all of the stress from both my work and personal life, I have gained about 10 pounds and just feel like I am slightly out of control.
I am looking for advice and a good (but flexible) workout plan that I can do in my hotel room at 12 AM. Any suggestions you have would be great!!
Thanks Julie
hi laura,
first of all, i am so sorry about the passing of your father. i am sure that this event alone – even w/o your work related stress – is more than overwhelming and emotional.
as for your question, have you looked into circuit-style workouts? they are AWESOME because they include both cardio exercises (like burpees) and strength exercises (like lunges or push ups) and don’t require a gym or workout equimpent. you can find some on my workouts page.
also, a lot of people love the bodyrock website for awesome at-home (or in hotel room 🙂 ) workouts. i haven’t tried any personally, but have heard great things. here’s their website: http://www.bodyrock.tv/
I’m not too surprised, but CU-Boulder is a pretty active campus. Mine was more like the first-year-at-a-desk-job 15. Thank goodness I’ve gotten rid of those haha
I know I gained my freshman year bec I stopped my normal sports activity. Don’t know how much but it wasn’t pretty.
PS – I get to see you this weekend. 🙂
wooohooooooo!
I am actually a freshman away at school this year, and I have managed to lose 10 pounds since I started school! It’s easy when your dining hall food is pretty gross! I mainly just stick to salads, oatmeal, and deli turkey since we don’t even have chicken. Plus, being in california right on the beach, everyone is so consumed with their appearance that you can’t help being worried about gaining those 15lbs!
I remember that whole freshman 15 theory! I was definitely aware of it, but I didn’t worry about it too much. In retrospect, I realize I didn’t fluctuate on the scale at all during college. I think that’s because I was a vegetarian and all of the meal plan choices for vegs were realllllly gross! I only exercised 2-3x a week during that time so I wasn’t burining a whole ton of calories; it all balanced out. By my junior year, I’d gotten really into running and lifting, so while my body composition changed a lot (for the better!), my weight didn’t.
I’m totally surprised, I definitely gained some weight my freshman year! I agree with your ‘bodies are still forming’ idea. But I wish I had had your blog when I was a Freshman, you would’ve helped me to be a healthy student!!
I wasn’t too concerned about the “freshman 15” going into college, even though I ended up gaining 15 pounds… luckily mine wasn’t from booze and putting on a spare tire, mine was from lifting in the weight room for basketball. All I can say is thank you college athletics for keeping me in shape haha
I definitely gained the freshman 15…or 20. I think that part of that was due to the fact that I was still growing and maturing, part was due to me starting to eat after struggling with a mild form of an eating disorder, and part was due to having so much junky food available without having to ever leave the building 🙂
Thankfully, when I moved off campus, I was able to focus a lot more on preparing and eating healthy foods rather than rely on the readily available mozzarella sticks!
College was a turning point for me and getting healthier. I think I lost the Freshman 15. 🙂
That said, I think some people are still going through puberty when they enter college. So some of that weight gain is probably attributed towards becoming a woman or man.
Well, I actually AM a freshman right now in college! But, I’m so anti-freshman 15, and I definitely agree with you, it’s because everyone makes such a big deal about it that they’ve caused me to worry about something that hasn’t even happened yet! But so far, I haven’t gained any weight, maybe a couple pounds, but nothing that’s actually noticeable! As far as it goes for the other freshman I’m with, I think it goes for the people who used to do sports like crazy in high school, then nothing in college, so that’s why they’re gaining weight. But, I think 15 pounds is a little excessive and definitely a myth!!
For me, I’m eating healthy, which includes my fix of froyo of course :D, and exercising and taking some fitness classes.
I actually had the junior year 15 – it was while I was studying abroad and drinking so much!
Gee, I’m so proud to be a part of that 10%.
This study is somewhat surprising to me. I–and many of my friends–gained about 10 pounds during my freshman year. After my freshman year, though, I started Weight Watchers and ultimately LOST 55 pounds while I was still in college. I noticed that many other people in college went one of two ways–they either gained a large amount of weight or lost a large amount of weight. I am surprised to hear that such a small percentage of people actually gain the Freshman 15!
I always thought 15 lbs. was a little TOO high, but I definitely did gain weight throughout my college years. I wasn’t much of a partier though, & tried to keep my eating under control as well.
Since I hit college I’ve gotten more in shape now than I EVER was in high school haha, so I’m far from the freshman 15 though. My ex on the other hand who decided to join a frat…Yeah not so much for him hahah.
That is so interesting! I always felt like I dodged that bullet when I, in fact, got in better shape throughout college…that is, until, my senior spring when rules seemed to go out the window and you had to “live everyday to the max” (because apparently you can’t socialize/drink beer after college…?)
i actually gained 15 pounds– exactly! i was stick thin in high school and had the world’s fastest metabolism, and went into college just not caring at all what i ate because i could never gain weight (i tried by drinking shakes- never worked). little did i know all i had to do was go to college! LOL! late night pizza, beer, and all-you-can-eat food sure does catch up with you. it was a blessing in disguise because if i had not gained the weight i wouldn’t have become a runner. i lost about 10 lbs but im happy with the ‘net gain’ of 5- i needed it!
Of course it’s an exaggeration for most people, but I think most of us packed on a few lbs throughout college. I lost weight initially because my campus was huge, but very active/walkable. I put on a few lbs junior and senior year when I was old enough to go to the bars and order late night Jimmy John’s, but it fell right off as soon as I got into the “real world.” I also grew two inches during college.
I can sort of believe this. There is so much more focus on being healthy and exercising today than there was 20 years ago when the whole “Freshman 15” thing started. So I can kind of see why freshman aren’t gaining as much anymore during their first year of college.
When I was a freshman at UCF (in 1995, I’m old) working out regularly wasn’t really in my vocabulary, so I ate and drank and gained my 15 … and then some. It wasn’t until I discovered running that I reversed the Freshman 15.
woohoo for UCF!!! 🙂 and congrats on your success in losing the freshman 15 🙂
umm 15? i gained 50… no joke. it’s all lost now but I got so fat in college =(
I think the numbers from the study sound more like what I saw through college. Although some people did gain more than 15 by the looks of it. Guess it depends on how your eating changes from at home to greasy dining hall food as well as the mass amounts of beer consumption! ha. Personally, I lost weight my freshman year. But that’s because I was on the softball team and we worked out hardcore every single day.
I actually lost weight my freshman year because I moved out of my parents house and had to support myself completely in my first apartment on minimum wage. Needless to say, I didn’t have a ton of money for food so didn’t eat as well. I also started working out more to deal with the stress. Not the best diet!
I was actually pretty lucky and ended up losing weight between my Freshman and Sophomore years. It was the “Junior 15” for me. 😛
I always thought it was legit but never thought too much about it when I started school.
I saw this too when I was in the gym this morning! I’m not surprised, I always thought 15 was a high number, I would have guessed the average to be between 5 and 10. And I’m sure it’s less nowadays since younger people are becoming more health conscious, especially those in the socioeconomic class that attends college.
I am not surprised. But I wonder how many are already considered overweight when they get to college.
I was not concerned about it when I went to college. I didn’t gain my 15 (ok it was more like 40) until after I got married. But I got most of it back off.
The Kidless Kronicles
i was pretty overweight throughout college anyways…but i know i prob weighed the most freshman and senior year…freshman year bc of all the crappy food readily available and senior year from too much beer..lol. thankfully i began my weight loss 6 months after graduating school…if i had been like i am now, college wouldve been even better bc the dining hall had alot of healthy options readily available too!!
most of my friends gained a couple lbs freshman year but dropped it off pretty quickly after realizing it prob isnt healthiest to be eating cheeseburgers and french fries and pizza everyday 😉
I didn’t really believe in the Freshman 15 but I definitely gained close to that in muscle! Since I was a collegitate athlete our trainers put us through some intense workouts with extremely heavy weights and I bulked up…yuck!
I’m a little surprised b/c it seemed like my friends and me all gained some weight throughout college. But I completely agree with you, I think some of those pounds can be attributed to normal body changes during those years. I have lost weight since graduating from college but my hips are definitely wider than they were at 18.
I just got married – I wonder if this myth also applies to the post-marriage weight gain I’ve been hearing about! haha
I gained mostly my sophomore year when I moved out of the dorms though I did gain during freshman year as well. I gained a total of 45 pounds those first 3 years and thankfully started losing it. I continued losing weight after college and ended up in my best shape ever. I was always big and college both made it worse and then made it better.
I gained almost 50 lbs (no that isn’t a typo) in my first year of university but the weight gain wasn’t because of the typical freshman 15 rather it was because I was struggling with undiagnosed depression and anxiety. I’ve lost some of that excess weight and the exercise I’m committed to does double duty as improving both my physical and mental health. Unfortunately, I was recently told I had plantar faciatis, and I’ve had to lay off the running so I’m struggling now to maintain regular exercise that is low/no impact.
I actually don’t think this study is accurate at all–I think it can go either way for college students. I know a lot of people who gained weight their freshman year and I know a lot of people who also lost weight their freshman year. Ultimately, I think it depends on how different your lifestyle changes are. For example, if you barely exercised in high school and ate a somewhat balanced diet, you might lose weight in college because you added exercise to your lifestyle (in the form of walking to/from class), assuming that you ate relatively the same way in high school. In opposition, if you exercised frequently in high school and ate healthy meals, you could easily gain weight if you barely made it to the gym in college and succumbed to making poor choices at the dining hall, drank several nights a week, and had late-night meals.
I’m not sure I’m conveying my opinion effectively–am I making sense? My point is that if you go from one side of the spectrum to the other, it is likely that you will gain (or lose) weight in college.
i think you’re exactly right… totally depends on your lifestyle and how you were before college & how your habits changed.
I was terrified of the freshman 15 as well but did not actually start gaining weight until my sophomore year of college. I am a junior now and although I have gained some weight, this is definitely due to my body changing. I am way more aware of what I eat and how often I exercise now than I was in high school.
shoot–i was 2 pant sizes larger by fall break. I didn’t eat in a structured way, had more late night meals, more meals from restaurants, drank too much, and didn’t have structured exercise everyday like I’d had in highschool. Playing sports year round kept the metabolism pretty high. When i went home for the summer, i lost 15 lbs by eating mom’s food and workign out.
I heard about this yesterday while I was watching the news. I went to culinary school so they always joked about the Freshman 50 instead of 15! You’re always trying your recipes so it’s hard to not put on a few pounds. Luckily, I didn’t gain more then 5 or so pounds by the end of school.
I am a bit suprised by the results, but you are right, everyone is different because we are still growing at that time. I also think it has a lot to do with the poor schedule that college creates. I am lucky and go online to school, so I don’t worry about it. I sometimes skip the gym on Mondays because that is the last day in my week where most assignments are due. Its all about how you address it and keep yourself in check!
I’m really surprised by this! Most people I knew, myself included, gained at least 10 lbs. A few of us even gained about 15-20 lbs. I gained 17! I did stop swimming competitively, but I also had mono. I think I’m the only person that’s ever had mono and actually gained weight!! My brother just started his freshman year, and I can already see some substantial weight gain on his frame. I think it’s a combination of new routine/environment and overindulgence. Of course, these things are all so individual, that it’s hard to believe one study could be more “right” than the next.
Freshmen 15 scared me when going into college, I was very aware and I started the year up a few pounds because I was still growing until my adult body, granted my whole freshmen year I was only 18. By the end of that year I might have lost too much weight because of how paranoid I was about gaining that weight and having trouble transitioning from girl to women’s body. I really wish more people would talk about the weight gain/body changes around that age more often. I think it would help girls feel more at ease with the changes and understand that it is natural. And not automatically assume it is “the freshmen 15 myth.”