Just Your Average 68-Year-Old College Freshman.
The “Freshman Fifteen” is shorthand for the pounds kids put on during their first year at college.
They line up in front of all-you-can-eat dormitory buffets, desserts included. Between meals there are chips, pastries, sugar-glazed sugar and fried salt. There’s even an industry that ships snacks to remind students their parents wuv them.
Academic stress plays a role too—adrenaline and cortisol spike. Eat something! The eight-hundred-pound gorilla is alcohol. There are rumors about keggers but somehow I haven’t gotten invited to any. What’s that about?
Freshman gain an average of 8 pounds in their first year—some even more. Most of them work off their Freshman Fifteen before they work off their student loans, which really isn’t saying much.
