American Culture And The Phenomenon Of The Freshman 15

American Culture and the Phenomenon of the â€Å"Freshman 15† Society in America today has become weight obsessed. Every channel on TV, every magazine cover, and every form of social media always has something that can relate back to weight and the obsession of losing it. This emphasis on weight and being skinny has formulated this more recent notion of the â€Å"Freshman 15†. This phenomenon of freshman going away to college and gaining fifteen pounds during their first year has become something that is seen as inevitable to some degree. However, more recent studies have proven this phenomenon false and most students gain a lot less than the stated fifteen pounds during their first year. There has been in depth research into the topic that looks†¦show more content†¦There is hope however; the â€Å"Freshman 15† or any sort of weight gain is preventable. The â€Å"Freshman 15† is a term used to describe the average amount of weight gained during the first year of college. This significant weight gain may be true for some students, but most only gain less than five pounds. Some students are even able to lose weight during their first year of college. There are many alleged causes to blame for this gain, some of them include overeating, late night snacking, limited dining hall food options and alcohol consumption. Avoiding weight gain can be very challenging, especially for people who were used to playing sports their entire lives but didn’t continue at the college level. Fitting in time to exercise and finding motivation to workout can be difficult without some driving force. In a study conducted by Lauren Penney, she interviewed women and asked them their work out tendencies during their freshman year of college. (see table 3) Table 3. Frequency of Exercise Freshman Year of College (n=22) Regularly 10 (45%) Every once in awhile 9 (41%) Every once in awhile to hardly ever 2 (9%) Hardly Ever 1 (5%) There have been all different studies that investigate this topic. Many different factors have to be considered when looking into a study such as where it took place, how many students were studied, over what period of time, the major of the student, and are they