Question

Claim: The freshmen 15 is real

Comments

This is exactly how I feel. Everyone's metabolism and how they break down food or alcohol is different. Just because some people gain weight when they get to college doesn't mean it's inevitable for every single student. Some people, such as myself, have even lost weight from walking everywhere and the REC center being a 2-minute walk away. It really depends on what you're eating and your activity level.

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I liked your explanation of why it isn't real but I think you could've included some sources to why it isn't real to backup your claim. I found once source by ASU Wellness that backups your claim to which I agree with.

Source: https://wellness.asu.edu/blog/freshman-15-fact-fiction#:~:text=However%2C%20college%20newbies%20may%20rest,freshman%20year%2C%20nowhere%20near%2015.

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This is false. The freshman 15 Is a concept created in the 80s in the U.S. to claim that every freshman entering college will gain 15 pounds in their first year. While many people do gain weight, a government study shows that people can also loose weight and most people stayed the same weight their first year in college. A decent amount of people do gain weight, men more that women, in their freshman year but the average wright gained is not 15 pounds but closer to 5. https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC2532948/

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The freshmen 15 is a concept that has no real basis except for less healthy eating habits, more alcohol, and perhaps less physical exercise that comes with being in college.  There have been multiple studies on this and none can completely agree on one answer and it shows its completely more on the person rather then an inevitability of a person gaining 15 lbs in college.

https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC2532948/

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You bring up a valid point. It varies from person to person.

Answer 1

This claim is false. While weight gain does typically occur in college freshman, it is significantly less. Students typically gain a few pounds but not 15, with some even losing weight. This article did a study on college freshmen and said “Our results suggest that college freshmen do gain weight; however, the legendary Freshman 15 was rare among respondents in this study (5% gained > 15 lbs). The average gain for the entire group was 2.7 lbs.” (https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC2532948/). While students gained weight quicker and were more likely to, compared to the general population, it was found that the common amount of weight gained was less than 15 pounds. 

Source: https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC2532948/