Beyond the ‘Freshman 15’

High school students get a lot of advice before entering college, but one recommendation usually surfaces above the rest: Beware of the “Freshman 15.”

What students do not hear is to avoid the “Sophomore 3.”

While the former term refers to the 15 pounds the average college student supposedly gains freshman year, the latter refers to a study of 907 freshmen at Purdue University that revealed the average increase to be only about a third of the supposed 15.

Researchers at Brown University Medical School released the results Oct. 22. They revealed that freshman college students do typically gain weight, but the average is about 4 pounds.

While the freshman average may be lower than expected, students were found to continue to gain weight as sophomores.

“It may be 10 or 8, but it continues,” said Rena Wing, director of the weight control center at Brown. “That, to me, is a bigger problem.”

Katie Vatalaro Hill, assistant director of the VCU Office of Health Promotion, said she finds the study alarming as well.

“Many people say, ‘Oh, it is college. They are going to eat crappy now, but then they will be better as adults.’ But is that really true?”

Sophomore physics major Chris Powell said he has lost the 7 pounds he gained as a freshman. But he said he has noticed that other students, particularly female ones, have not.

Reflecting on his freshman year, senior environmental studies major Cary Chaffee agreed with Powell’s observation.

“It seems like the problem was the worst with females,” Chaffee said. “I was actually surprised when I saw some people that I went to high school with after a year in college. People tended to be a lot more bloated. A lot of them gained at least 15 pounds. I barely recognized them.”

In the two studies Brown conducted, however, men gained more weight than females. While studying 382 Brown students, researchers found that freshman males gained an average of 5.6 pounds, while freshman females gained an average of 3.6 pounds. Among the Purdue students, men averaged 9.5 pounds of weight gain from the beginning of college to the end of their sophomore year, while women averaged 9.2 pounds during the same stretch.

If such weight gain continues into the rest of life, as the study suggests, college students could face a lifetime of health problems.

“It’s a pretty crucial time,” Hill said. “College is the time to educate people about nutrition because they are on their own for the first time.”

The Office of Health Promotion conducts a study every spring and polls 1,000 randomly selected VCU students about their weight and eating and exercise habits. According to the study’s 2006 results, about one-third of VCU students are overweight, and 10 percent are obese.

Hill said the reasons for so many overweight students vary. Some of the problems are that students do not exercise enough or eat enough fruits and vegetables, she said.

“We also eat a lot of fast food,” she added.

The study reported that only 8 percent of VCU students eat the recommended five fruits and vegetables a day. Sixty-six percent of students do not exercise as much as the 30 minutes a day Hill recommends.

“The other thing is beverages,” Hill said. “There are a lot of empty calories in sodas and coffee drinks. If you walk across campus, everybody has got something in their hand.

“A 20-ounce Mountain Dew has 275 calories, for example, and it does not fill you up,” she said. “You are still hungry, so you go get something to eat.”

Powell found other reasons as well.

“Portion control. It’s all about portion control,” Powell said. “There’s just more time to eat here, and you can eat as much as you want. A lot of people come to Shafer to eat and hang out. I think the college mentality is to hang out and eat. Maybe it’s just VCU, but I doubt it.”

Hill said she agrees that these results seem to reflect more of a national trend than a VCU phenomenon.

“I don’t think VCU’s been doing anything different,” Hill said. “A good thing about VCU is that there are a lot of options. Even within Shafer there is a great salad bar.”

Hill pointed out a number of less healthy options at the dining facility.

“They also have French fries, pizza, hamburgers and soda,” she said. “Then they will sell boxes of Krispy Kreme doughnuts. Who needs a whole box of Krispy Kreme doughnuts?”

Pre-physical therapy sophomore Katherine Koussis said she is concerned about eating healthy foods, so she eats hummus with her meals at Shafer Court Dining Center.

“Everything else is fried,” Koussis said. “There are always French fries, tater tots, stir fry. They used to have grilled chicken patties. This year, it is fried chicken patties.”

If she could have things her way, Koussis said Shafer would have more lean chicken and a better fruit selection with more grapes and strawberries.

“When you eat healthy you feel better afterward,” she said. “Shafer’s gross after you eat it.”

Koussis’ friend and fellow Shafer diner Erica Virvo, a sophomore interior design major, agreed, but she mentioned alcohol consumption as another reason for weight problems.

“Drinking definitely has something to do with it,” Virvo said. “Drinking and Shafer.”

Having the option to use Dining Dollars to eat at places other than Shafer did not console either student.

“When you have the meal plan that costs $400, you get 75 Dining Dollars,” Koussis said. “That lasts you like one week. You’re basically forced to eat at Shafer.”

Virvo said prices around campus, especially at the University Student Commons, are also too high.

“If it’s healthy, it’s four times the price,” Virvo said. “Pineapples are like five chunks for $5. What is this? I could buy a whole pineapple for $5. It’s not convenient. It’s a rip-off.”

Eric West, VCU fitness and wellness program coordinator, said he has had problems as well with Shafer’s commitment to good nutrition.

“We were told that there was a nutrition book that Shafer would give to students if they asked for it,” West said. “When several students went and asked, though, they said the books did not exist.”

West said nutritional information for Shafer’s dishes was posted online about a year ago after one of his staff members, Bryan Banning, requested it.

Still, West said Shafer and VCU Dining Services have improved.

“They do much better than they used to,” he said. “I have to admit that eating healthy is not exactly cheap. So I’m not sure if they’re worried about money.”

West said that maintaining good health and avoiding weight gain is dependent on exercise as much as eating habits.

“Whether it be coming to the gym, doing yard work, house work, or going to play Frisbee, just find some kind of activities,” West said. “And plus, maybe don’t ride your car as much, maybe ride the bike. Do the stairs instead of elevators.”

Junior Eric Marquis has incorporated various physical activities into a strict regiment by visiting the Stuart C. Siegel Center three times a week to work out with free weights, cardiovascular machines and sometimes ping-pong equipment. He said he does so for good health and energy, but he does not feel he needs to lose weight.

“I don’t feel like I’m overweight,” Marquis said. “I’m just comfortable with where I am.”

Others students do work out to shed extra pounds.

Keeping score for indoor soccer games, senior fashion merchandising major Alicia Yim works at the Siegel Center and often uses free time to ride the exercise bikes.

“Exercise is definitely about weight loss for girls, or at least to maintain their weight,” Yim said. “For me and my friends, it is probably the bottom line. Guys don’t really say it is for weight loss but more for bulk, to get in better shape. But it is all for looking better, I guess.”

Whatever students do to fit exercising into their schedules, they need to do it, West said.

“Just find something that is active and that is fun that you enjoy doing,” he said.

But time management is an issue with many students. Koussis said it becomes more difficult to find time to exercise as students progress through college and their course work becomes more difficult, perhaps explaining why weight gain is not just a freshman problem.

“If you work and you go to school, it’s hard to find time to exercise on top of that,” Koussis said. “I only can sometimes, like once a month. Living off campus, my exercise is walking to class.”

Although exercising for 30 minutes at least four times a week may be tough, Hill said knowing the right foods to eat may be tougher.

“There’s a lot of fad diets that kind of confuse people,” Hill said. “No carbs, low carbs. There are also always new studies coming out. One day eggs are good for you, the next day eggs are bad for you. So there is a lot of confusion about nutrition.”

For reliably healthy food options, Hill recommends eating more fruits, vegetables and whole grains.

“Things like hundred percent whole wheat bread, brown rice, wheat pasta,” she said. “Also choosing lean proteins is good – things like chicken and turkey and fish more than hamburgers and steak and pork products.”

Knowing the kinds of ingredients that go into foods is very important, Hill said.

Students are better off preparing their own food, she said. “Whereas if you are going to pick it up from somewhere on or around campus, you just don’t know what is going into your food, and a lot of the time it is extra calories.”

Another key to avoiding weight gain is getting enough sleep, Hill said.

“A lot of times we prop ourselves up with caffeinated beverages or food because we’re sleep deprived, and that’s where we try to get our energy,” she said. “Keeping a regular sleep schedule, trying to shoot for seven to nine hours, will give students enough energy that they can exercise, and then they won’t need all of those added calories to stay awake. Exercise, sleep and nutrition all kind of go hand-in-hand.”

Hill recommends students seeking to curb their weight gains to visit MyPyramid.gov for diet suggestions or the Office of Health Promotion, located next to the Siegel Center.

West said that making an effort to stop weight gain may not seem important now, but it will be important for better health later in life.

“It’s better to start good habits now than to wait until you go to the doctor 10, 20, 30 years down the road because your life is dependent on your losing weight,” West said. “It’s a lot harder to make a healthier lifestyle then than it is now.”