Beware the dreaded Freshman 15.
Freedom from parents' watchful eyes and close proximity to food options that are cheap, fast and unhealthy raise the danger of packing on the pounds upon first arriving to school in a phenomena commonly called the "Freshman 15." Not to mention the reality that many students will take in some calories from newly-available beer. A group of college students joined HuffPost Live Wednesday and confirmed much of the extra weight came from succumbing to that typical college lifestyle.
Kenyatta Giddings, a recent University of Texas graduate, said she was surprised to pack on extra pounds.
"I danced for a lot of my life so my weight was always kind of under control," Giddings said.
Brian McGannon, a writer for PostGradProblems.com, noted part of the problem may be students who go to college and leave behind their typical workouts from high school sports.
Dietitian Marisa Moore said college students' habits usually create circumstances that make it easy to eat unhealthy more often that they should.
"A lot of students stay up very late at night, and when you have early morning classes, that's a recipe for disaster," Moore said. "You're always going to skip breakfast," Moore said. "When you skip breakfast, that leads to overeating later in the day and another late night, so it creates this cycle."
Learn more about the typical weight gain traps that students find in college in the video above.
Catch the full conversation about the Freshman 15 at HuffPost Live HERE.
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