Freshman 5 may put young women on road to obesity

Subway riders walk through the turnstiles while leaving the U.S. Open in New York September 4, 2007. ''Freshman 15,'' the idea that new college students put on 15 pounds of weight in the first year, may be a myth, but young women do gain about five pounds, Canadian researchers report.

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - "Freshman 15," the idea that new college students put on 15 pounds of weight in the first year, may be a myth, but young women do gain about five pounds, Canadian researchers report.

"It's still alarming because that happened over six to seven months," Dr. Janis A. Randall Simpson told Reuters Health. "If young women going to university continue to put on weight at that rate it could be very problematic."

The few studies to date of weight gain among college freshman have found that they do put on a few pounds, but far less than 15, say Randall Simpson and her colleagues at the University of Guelph, Ontario, and elsewhere. However, most of these studies have been small, haven't separated females from males, and have had other limitations.

To investigate further, the researchers followed 116 young women as they entered college, asking them about lifestyle and diet and checking their weight, fat mass, body mass index (BMI) and waist circumference in August/September 2004, November 2004, and March 2005.

During that time, girls' weight increased by 2.4 kilograms (5.3 pounds), on average. Average BMI went from 22.3 to 23.1, while body fat percentage rose from 23.8 percent to 25.6 percent. Their waists also expanded by an average of 2.5 centimeters (about 1 inch), the researchers report in the Journal of the American Dietetic Association.

The study participants' calorie intake didn't increase during the course of the study, and their alcohol consumption only rose from 2.7 to 3.1 drinks a week, the researchers found. Time spent watching TV fell by 44 percent, but computer time jumped by an hour a day.

A statistical analysis suggested that girls who were engaged in less moderate activity in college than in high school were more likely to gain weight, Randall Simpson explained.

It's possible, she added, that girls who participated in sports during high school decided to skip athletic team participation in college because they were spending more time studying.

While their study found no increase in calorie intake, the researcher noted, it relied on the girls' report of what they had eaten in the previous 24 hours, which isn't necessarily a reliable way to gauge a person's average calorie consumption. At college, she pointed out, "they do have cafeterias available where it's all you can eat."

The findings suggest that colleges should do more to incorporate physical activity into the lives of female college students, and she advised that girls entering college should watch what they eat and be sure to get enough exercise. "It's also common sense," Randall Simpson added. "I'm afraid there's no magic bullet for all of this."

SOURCE: Journal of the American Dietetic Association, June 2008.