Ashley Walters

English 113
Professor Lacey
February 5, 2015
Research Paper

Healthy Lifestyle
For many students, college is brand new fresh start to life. Theyve left their boundaries
of high school, and now its time to move on to the next chapter in life. For most students, they
think of college as a place of freedom and choice. Theyre thinking of all the possible things they
can do without their parents decision. This all starts with going to parties, going out to eat all
hours of the night, and better yet buying their own food and making meals themselves. All of
these are a progression to possible weight gain. Studies have shown that 1of 3 College students
gain five to fifteen pounds their freshman year. This doesnt mean that everyone gains that much
weight, but it is likely. The fact is most student gain weight in their first semester due to the
environment changes and their routine.
Attending College for the first time can be a stressful experience for many new college
students. In fact, one study that evaluated the cardiovascular health needs of college students
found that nearly 60 percent of the students rated their stress levels as high or very high
(Nguyen-Michel, Unger, Hamilton, & Spruijt-Metz, 2006). The experience of stress is likely to
be a regular occurrence in the lives of new college students, given the nature of the transition that
they are making. Torres & Nowson (2007) defines stress as any general response of the body that
either overwhelms or threatens to overwhelm the body and its ability to maintain homeostasis. In

general, stress occurs when there are demands on an individual that exceed his or her coping
capabilities. And the reaction to stress may have a toll on a student depending on the nature of
the events that are occurring and the characteristics of the individual (Dyson & Renk, 2006). One
common natural stressor for any college student is when an exam is coming up. But earning
high grades is not the only source of stress for college students. Other potential sources of stress
include excessive homework, unclear assignments, and uncomfortable classrooms. In addition to
academic expectations and requirements, relations with faculty members and time pressures may
also be sources of stress. Relationships with family and friends, eating and sleeping habits, and
loneliness may affect some students adversely (Ross, Neibling, & Heckert, 1999).
A hundred years ago, the United States wasnt a place where you could find tacos, pizza,
burritos in very single town you came across. In fact you probably wouldnt even be able to find
any of them actually. You would possible find little restaurants, owned by a family and were sit
down and eat places. Food was usually hand made, and also ingredients that were found in their
local area. No fast food places, no chained restaurants, of quick to delivery pizzas. It was just
about a century ago that technology allowed certain companies and industries to begin mass
manufactured foods. Around 1910, advertiser began to persuade certain housewives to buy bread
instead of spending hours making it from scratch. Most foods that were usually hand made by
the housewives, began to be made in all the local stores, so they decided to go buy it and save
time, which made sense right? Why not go buy something thats quick and easy to make for
dinner and actually spend time doing thing you love! This is what a lot of the housewives
thought of this. In the 50s tv dinners replaced a lot of homemade meals at dinner time, reading
to go mac and cheese were establish, and pop-tarts were the biggest thing that came around.
Mothers started giving their children pop-tarts for breakfast instead of real breakfast. Easy and

fast started to become the newest trend. See how this all came about? More fast foods were
made, a lot more convenient foods, and now all of a sudden people are becoming obese and need
to lose weight. The freshman 15 started making a big daybu, and well as different weight loss
companies started appearing. Over the next couple decades, Americans started eating more
processed food and everything started going downhill from there. Thankfully over the past
couple years, we have had studies show the true facts about proceeded foods and how horrible
they are for our bodies!
The prospective weight gain of an incoming freshman study shows this:
Objective

To assess the prevalence of weight gain among male and female college freshmen.
Methods

Study 1 examined weight change over freshman and sophomore years among 904 students
attending a state university in Indiana, from 20022004. Study 2 examined weight and BMI
change over the freshman year among 382 students attending a private university in Rhode
Island, from 20042006.
Results

77% of Study 1 participants and 70% of Study 2 participants gained weight during their
freshman year, largely during the first semester. In Study 1, weight gain averaged 3.5 kg in
females and males; in Study 2, weight gain averaged 1.6 kg for females and 2.5 kg for males.
Students continued to gain weight their sophomore year, with females 4.2 kg and males 4.3 kg
heavier than at start of college. Overweight/obesity rates increased from baseline to end of
freshman year for Study 1 (21.6% to 36%) and Study 2 participants (14.7% to 17.8%).
Conclusion

The first years of college may be a critical developmental window for establishing weight gain
prevention efforts.

Everyone needs to know more and more about nutrition. There are studies that come out
almost every day about something new. I am going to give a little overview about important
nutrition facts. A whole grain is a seed from a plant: The whole seed with nothing added and
nothing taken away. A seed has a few parts: there is a endosperm, the bran, and the germ. The
endosperm is a very starchy and doesnt really offer much nutritional value to us. The bran, the
layer on the outside of the seed contains fiber. Fiber, fiber, fiber is the best thing that you can eat!
Fiber helps clean out your digestive system and helps regulate boul movement. The germ of the
seed is where the nutrients lives, all the vitamins that are present. Whole foods like fruits are
veggies give a huge amount of nutrients in our bodies and are a great way to clean out our
system and start our healthy lifestyles!
Many students in high school were either playing a sport or were taking a P.E. class of
some sort. This means that they were pretty active while in school. Now that these students are in
college, where they have tougher class, all-nighters, and lack of sleep, this slows down their
metabolism which means this is when the pounds start adding on. Students think once theyve
gain the weight, theres no possible way to get back in shape. But they are completely wrong!!
There are so many ways to get yourself healthier and involved while in college. Most all college
have a fitness center that has some kind of free access to. There are healthier choices to make in
the cafeterias or healthy ways to make your lunch from home.
There are many ways to kick start fitness level and achieve those goals youve been
wanting. Number one: Join a intramurals with friends. Intramural games are usually played three
times a week. Therefor you get a good cardio workout in three times a week! Number two:
embrace your room workouts. You do not need a gym membership to workout. All you need is a
enough space in your room to do varieties of different workout. The technology we have these

days, gives you a variety of different workouts as well as stretching exercises as well online as
well as downloading a fitness app. Number 3: make a schedule. Making a schedule of your
school and work as well as a workout plan, will motivate you to stay on track with your
schedule. Tell your friends about your plans and have them join you as well. Working out with
others will help you push yourself as well as motivate others around you.
Due to the fact that college tuition is becoming more and more expensive, college
students are spending more money on school than on anything else. Once you become a college
student, your parents tend not to help you pay for things you want anymore. They send you off to
college and expect you to figure things out on your own. At that point it all starts with food and
necessities. Students, who dont work, try to find easy ways to get cheap food. This then leads to
fast food restaurants, where you can get a double cheeseburger for three dollars, with a large
soda and fries. That then makes them pack on calories with no nutrition value. The struggle is
within college students. College students need to be well aware of what Nutrition and Exercise
does to their bodies, and how it can benefit them in so many ways while they are in their studies.
Late night eating, all-nighters, lack of exercise, and much more will not help them succeed
through their studies and later on in life.There are many different types of ways you can find out
how you are regularly eating as well as trying to keep a close track of your daily intake. Below is
a Complusive Eating Scale survey. I have come up with different types of questions that would
be a possible reason for your weight gain. There is many solutions to relieve stress though
through taking different test or simple just EXERCISING!

There are many emotional events a person goes through once they hit college years.
Theres the stress of exams, homework, school projects, reading assignment and much more.
Being in college takes a lot of your free time away that you used to have in high school; instead
of going out on the weekends with friends, youre sitting in your dorm room hustling and trying
to finish homework thats due the next day. What every college student needs to realize is there
are moments when your body needs to relax and relive all thats stress thats within their bodies.
School stress, relationship stress and family stress takes a huge toll on a persons body no matter
what the situation is. Thats where fitness and health comes in and ties this all together. Taking
well care of your body relieves stress. Working out at least 30 minutes a day will relieve all that
tension that is built up within your body. Realize what youre doing to your body and change
that, because the fact is, you need to change your habits to a healthier you and it will make you a
better you!
Your body is a specially designed machine. Just like the other machines that power your
life, body needs fuel and not just any kind of fuel, it need proper fuel that will nourish and keep
your body going strong. We look for food choices when we are out and about, but the problem is
that we are hunting for and gathering processed good. I may be able to jump on a local bus or in
some states call a taxi service to go anywhere to get food, or even having friends at school that
have cars. Think about it, most of your lives revolves around some kind of food. As little
children, we learn how to use a fork; and as infants we learned how to talk so they can receive
their food. Then you learn how to do math and they learn how to count money for food. You got
an education so that you could get a job to make money to get the necessities that you need in
life especially food. But as college students, we tend to go buy things that are cheap and easy to
make, yet we realize what we are putting into our bodies is all processed foods.

Your body is a beautiful thing. It is amazing, powerful, and incredible. By now I hope
youve learned enough about how to take better care of your body. I hope that you understand the
importance of keeping our bodies well nourished. Remember to love and respect your body that
Mother Nature has given to us. We all do it. We look at a friend of a person walking by who has
a physical attribute that we want, maybe long legs, big buff arms, tiny waist, big butt, little butt,
and many more things I can mention. We always want what we cant have! This is a huge trap
that many of us get tangled up in. When youre caught up in this trap, you tend to ignore the
needs of your own body because youre to busy hating it for what it isnt instead of loving it for
what it is! (Diaz p.200)
There is no goal to reach in 7 days or a month or even a year! The goal is forever. It is not
a quick fix; Its about living a long healthy life once you start your journey. What you will earn is
measure not in pounds or inches lost, but in what you will gain; a confidence that comes from
knowing yourself, becoming a better student, a body that can power the actions your mind
dreams up for you, and respecting yourself. The rewards are continuous and long lasting. The
work is a everyday struggle yet knowing that you can get through it. It about using your
discipline to make consistent choices that support your progress toward a goal that you have
chosen, and the ultimate goal for us all is a long, strong, happy, motivated, healthy lifestyle!
Just reading articles, novels, journals about losing weight and getting fit, its what is really
important. You need to make a stand and push yourself to be the best version of yourself that you
can possibly be! You must actually commit to doing this. You must want it. And then you must
go after it. College years is where everything changes you for the rest of your life. Think about it
for a second. You go to college to get a degree in a field that you want to spend your time
working for. Bad choices and good choices are all made in college. Food choices, friends,

lifestyles, relationship, it all starts really in college. If you want to build yourself a lifestyle that
you want to live in for the rest of your life you have to start now! Every time you make a better
choices, you are strengthening you discipline and changing your habits(Diaz 257). Good health
starts with awareness and relies on personal responsibilities. It all ties in with what you actions
are. Are you going to go to that party and drink and kill your body inside, or are you going to just
spend a Friday night out with friends or even go to the gym! Its all about what you choose and it
is all based on your actions!
Age ______ Race ______ Gender ______ Class rank ______
Compulsive Eating Scale (CES) How often do you do each of the following activities?
Circle the one answer for each question that comes closest to describing you.
1. Eat because you are feeling lonely.
a. Never b. Once or twice a year c. Once a month d. Once a week e. More than once
a week
2. Feel completely out of control when it comes to food.
a. Never b. Once or twice a year c. Once a month d. Once a week e. More than once
a week
3. Eat so much that your stomach hurts.
a. Never b. Once or twice a year c. Once a month d. Once a week e. More than once
a week
4. Eat too much because you are upset or nervous.

a. Never b. Once or twice a year c. Once a month d. Once a week e. More than once
a week
5. Eat too much because you are bored.
a. Never b. Once or twice a year c. Once a month d. Once a week e. More than once
a week

Works Cited
Diaz, Cameron, and Sandra Bark. The Body Book: The Law of Hunger, the Science of
Strength, and Other
Ways to Love Your Amazing Body. 1st ed. Vol. 1. 2013.
280. Print.

Cara Roher. "First Year Fatties | Health and Fitness". Mhsbroadcaster.org. Retrieved
2014-03-07.
Kumanyika SK, Obarzanek E. Pathways to obesity prevention: report of a National
Institutes of Health workshop. Obes Res. 2003;11:12631274. [PubMed]