Why The Freshmen 15 Is A Bunch of Crap

Every time I told an adult that I was getting ready to go to college, they inevitably chuckled and made a comment something along the lines of “Watch out for that freshmen fifteen!” Gaining fifteen pounds in a couple of months seems kind of ludicrous to me. Did you gain fifteen pounds every quarter when you lived at home? Not likely. If you live in dorms and eat dorm food like I do, it’s not like you are just being lazy and eating garbage every day. In fact, it takes less effort to walk across the street and ask for a plate of pasta (or anything else) than it does to make a Cup of Noodles.

The other half of gaining weight is lack of exercise. Many college freshmen love their newfound freedom. They can go to sleep whenever they want, go wherever they feel like, and eat and drink to their heart’s content. More often than not, this leads to the majority of male college students sitting in their dorm room and playing Halo 3 for hours on end, stopping only to eat and perhaps go to class. While I admit that I have played Halo 3 for hours on end many times, video games don’t take up a majority of my time outside of class. It is sad that college students spend their time this way.

I understand that people do have legitimate reasons for gaining weight such as inordinate amounts of stress due to the whole college experience. On the other hand, if everyone made a point to stop spending their money on junk food and get out and exercise a couple of times a day, the freshmen fifteen wouldn’t strike so many hapless victims.