The topic of weight gain in college is one you can’t avoid. Before your first semester, I bet you were warned about the freshman fifteen from many people. Most of whom probably had no right to be talking to you about the size of your body. Although I could go on forever about the outrage that is unsolicited advice on the topic of someone else’s body, I won’t because the truth of the matter is that the freshman fifteen doesn’t even exist! A study conducted by the National Institute of Health debunked the myth, concluding that the average weight gain for their sample of college freshmen was under 3 pounds. While it is important to make healthy choices in college, you don’t have to buy into the hype that you’re going to become overweight.
Now that that’s cleared up, let’s assume that you do gain weight in college. I did! And guess what? I’m happier and more confident than I ever was in high school. You plus ten pounds is still you. Another thing to keep in mind is that our diet-obsessed culture has conditioned us to shun weight gain. There is no reason for your adolescent high school body to be the same as your body in college. Think about what you were asking of your body before and what you are asking of it now. Personally, I ran year-round on my high school’s cross country and track teams, and I expected a whole that more from my body then than I do now. Bodies are nothing more than vehicles for life. As long as yours allows you to do all of the thing you want to, then it shouldn’t matter how much of it there is.
Works referenced:
Mihalopoulos, Nicole L., Peggy Auinger, and Jonathan D. Klein. “The Freshman 15: Is It Real?” Journal of American college health : J of ACH 56.5 (2008): 531–533. PMC. Web. 7 Jan. 2016.