Time to lose ‘the freshman 15’ —  from our vocabulary

By Cal Sutton

Coming to college as a first-year student can be accompanied by many different fears — whether that be not making friends, failing a class or the dreaded “freshman 15.”

“The freshman 15” is a term that has been widely used among college students since before many can even remember. In an August 1989 issue of Seventeen Magazine, a time before the majority of us were even born, scrawled on the front cover are the words “Fighting the Freshman 15” as an eye-catching headline. The society we were brought up in was already bombarded with these types of dieting messages.

From the 1990s to the 2020s, so much has changed. As a society, we have ditched butterfly clips and chunky highlights. On the other hand, though, the desire for “aesthetic” looks is just as damaging as ever.

When people discuss the freshman 15, it is described as body weight that is gained specifically within a student’s freshman year of college — and it is an extremely problematic phrase.

While some students do end up gaining some weight during their freshman year, whether that be because of a change in lifestyle, or simply the natural maturation of their bodies, wedging this fear into teens before they even arrive at college contributes to poorer mental health and can drive dangerous disordered eating behaviors.

The fact of the matter is that freshman year of college is transformative. The transition from high school to college tends to be full of stress and change, so it is not a surprise that students may gain weight.

Living in fear of gaining the freshman 15 just promotes eating disorders and diet culture. Making teens feel shame for growing and changing through a time of mass transition is highly disappointing. The fear of gaining any amount of weight also can contribute to a dangerously food-focused and unhealthy lifestyle.

The phrase needs to be abandoned and it needs to happen now. Not only is it harmful because it puts extra pressure on new students, making it so they may feel like they need to juggle weight control on top of classes and the stress of a new way of life — it also is not accurate.

A 2010 study done by Mihalopoulos and colleagues looked at over 500 students after their freshman year of college and the researchers actually found that, on average, the students gained only 2.7 pounds. This is vastly different from the colloquial jargon “claiming” that the weight gained is 15 pounds. The idea of gaining the freshman 15 is just a harmful scare tactic that encourages widespread and unsafe food-related behaviors.

Gaining weight is not in and of itself a bad thing. College students are in a period of their lives filled with stress and uncertainty. Stress hormones like cortisol have links to weight gain and pinning shame onto the students for something they may not be able to control is unfair and unhelpful.

Weight change, whether it be gain or loss, should not be something that needs to be pointed out or discussed in a negative manner. Adding that negative connotation to something that is so normal, such as weight change, could potentially increase student’s anxiety and body dissatisfaction levels.

The unnecessary stress and shame that comes along with pushing students to fixate on their weight as a means to not contribute to the statistics of the freshman 15 is part of what is making diet and eating disorder culture so strong and toxic.

If we could all just ditch the phrase and instead embrace change in new situations such as college, students could be both mentally and physically healthier, not having to feel the pressure of fitting into societal expectations.

Freshmen should be allowed to enjoy themselves, meet new people, try new things and most importantly, not have to be preoccupied with stress and fear about gaining a bit of weight.

Cal Sutton is a sophomore journalism major