The lifestyle you have in college will greatly influence the lifestyle you have for the rest of your life,” said Michele Hanford from Baker Ferguson Fitness Center.
Though the average weight gain among college first-years is in reality only 5-8 pounds, it is important to understand what causes weight gain in order to maintain a healthier lifestyle.
Upon entering college, there are several causes of weight gain. In a general sense, the greatest impact lies in the huge lifestyle change. College students are thrown into an entirely different situation than they were used to in high school, and it takes a while to transition to, and in the meantime pounds seem to appear out of nowhere.
College students are a lot busier upon arriving at school. Regular eating habits are no longer exercised and students end up eating when it is convenient, and at that point in large amounts.
“It’s a whole new style of time management. Students have classes from 8 to 4 or 9 to 7, and when they get home they are too tired, or have to work or study. They won’t end up eating until 10 and they’ll eat two pizzas,” said Hanford.
Change in eating habits has a big influence on weight gain, especially for first-years who have not yet adjusted to a busier schedule. Spreading out meals is one way weight gain can be avoided. When people gorge, the body can not work it off as readily, and more of the calories are stored in fat cells. Waking up in time for breakfast is very important. It starts the metabolism going right away and helps maintain body weight.
Another factor in watching food intake is in the quality of food offered. At Whitman, Bon Apetite offers variety of high quality food. However, the dining hall setting still presents a large quantity of options.
“The transition from eating what is set in front of you, to choosing from a large variety of unlimited amounts of foods – both healthy and not-so-healthy, can be difficult for many students,” said Tracee Anderson from the counseling center,
“This “choice” can be overwhelming and lead to impulsive eating, which could cause an overconsumption of calories. The trick to eating healthy in the dining halls is to be very mindful of your choices, stick to reasonable portions, eat slow and enjoy your food. Eat when you’re hungry or when you need calories (not for emotional reasons) and stop when you’ve had a reasonable portion and let your brain receive the signal that it’s full.”
The atmosphere and catering on Whitman’s campus aims to help students make healthy options. Reid Campus Center is open for a longer period of time, so that students who can not attend normal dining hours can still get a good meal.
Another cause of weight gain upon entering college is the increase of sitting and a decrease of exercise.
“Unless students are in a sport or are very disciplined in exercising, they tend to be a lot less active,” said Hanford.
Hanford recommends taking 10 minutes out of every 60 to get up, walk around, and change body position. If students are not into sports or don’t have the motivation, take an activity course. It only takes two hours a week. Exercising 4 to 5 times a week is important to maintaining a healthy weight.
Alcohol also plays a role in weight gain. Statistically there are 9 calories/gram of fat, 7 calories/gram of alcohol, and 4 calories/gram of carbs or protein. In other words, alcohol provides a lot of calories that are useless to your body. It is easy to drink and get calories with no nutritional value. Therefore, the calories have no where to go except to fat cells, where excess calories are stored.
It takes 3,500 Calories burned in order to burn one pound of fat, so the extra Calories taken in through alcohol consumption are not necessarily simple to get off.
Through the program BASICS, the Health Center has for the last three years looked at exactly how alcohol affects students. One statistic looks into how long it would take for students to work off the amount of alcohol they drink. In one example a 145 pound, 5’11” male said that on average he drinks 3 to 4 times a week. This ompounds to around 11,826 Calories per month, which amounts to about three pounds gained each month. It takes 2,266 minutes of brisk walking or 1,773 minutes on a Stairmaster to expend the equivalent number of Calories.
At Whitman, Ellen Collette director of the Health Center said, “on this campus a good percentage of students expect a lot out of themselves and therefore care a lot about what they make of themselves.”
For this reason, Whitman students are generally more conscious of making healthy decisions, but a new lifestyle is still an affecting change for first-years to overcome.
