1. the true number of pounds gained by female first-year college students is one-fifth of the well-known “Freshman 15.”
On average, freshmen women gain just over three pounds, according to the new study that yielded this stat. “No more than 10 percent of college freshmen gained 15 pounds,” write its authors, “so the vast majority did not experience the ‘Freshman 15.’ moreover, 25 percent of college freshmen reported losing weight during their first year… Repeated use of the phrase ‘the Freshman 15,’ even if it is being used just as a catchy alliterative figure of speech, may contribute to the misperception of being overweight, especially among young women.”
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2. Weight gained during the six-week winter holiday season accounts for 51 percent of all weight gained by the general population over the entire year.
4. Female first-year university students gain weight 36 times faster than non-college women of the same age.
“There is nothing more powerful than social pressure, and there is nothing more comforting than food,” Teta says. “When stress hits, people seek company and they seek food.” Freshman year involves lots of all three. the good news is that weight gained during freshman year tends to be lost again by junior year: the authors of the study that yielded these stats attribute this loss to “a go from mandatory dormitory housing and cafeteria food services.”
6. Men who quit smoking face an 8 percent chance of gaining more than 28 pounds as a result.
And women who quit smoking face a 6 percent chance of gaining more than 28 pounds. Facing an even higher risk of gaining that much weight are African Americans, people under 55, and people who smoked at least 15 cigarettes a day, according to the study that includes these stats. ”Cigarettes feed brain chemistry, and so does food,” Teta says. “Take away the smokes and the next feel-excellent chemical close at hand is food.”
7. Feeling comfortable in a relationship is more than four times as likely to result in weight gain as is giving up smoking.
The study that yielded this stat surveyed participants regarding life events that had caused them to gain or lose weight. Pregnancy topped the weight-gain triggers, while “relationship problems” topped the weight-loss triggers. according to Harcombe, happy coupledom often includes food: “Meals out, meals in, takeaways, chocolates, breakfast in bed: say ‘I love you just the way you are’ and the weight piles on.”
8. Forty percent of men experience “sympathetic pregnancy” and gain weight while their partners are pregnant.
The condition, technically known as couvade syndrome, finds males vicariously sharing their female partners’ pregnancy symptoms—such as nausea, backache, increased appetite, and food cravings. according to the book that yielded these stats, the fathers-to-be in one study “craved chocolate, ice cream, potato chips, and fried eggs.” in another study, “one man reported that he felt compelled to incubate and help hatch out a clutch of bantam chickens.”
9. Newly divorced women face a 22 percent chance of gaining weight.
10. Female first-year college students gain two-thirds as much weight as male first-year college students.
The “Freshman 15” gets all the buzz, but guys outgain girls. “A young female’s biggest challenge is often self-esteem, while young men have to deal with that gigantic male ego,” Teta says. During that first year at college, “this sends women to the treadmill and men to the beer bong.”
11. Females who were sexually abused as children are nearly three times more likely to be obese by age 27 than females
“We are not purporting a causal link between sexual abuse and obesity per se,” write the authors of the study that yielded this stat, “but are suggesting a plausible link between the various consequences that are associated with severe childhood adversity and the subsequent development of obesity… Female individuals with traumatic pasts may have particularly high-risk growth trajectories in late childhood and adolescence and that obesity prevention efforts targeting these points in development may be warranted.”
12. Women who go in with their partners without marrying them gain only one-fifth as much weight as women who marry their partners.
Women who enter into cohabitation relationships outside of marriage gain only one pound on average, according to the study that yielded this stat. By comparison, women entering into traditional marriages gain seven pounds and women entering into marriages with prenuptual agreements gain six. according to the scholars whose report includes these figures, “Cohabitators have a significantly higher probability that their relationships will dissolve than either of the married groups. thus, cohabitators have a strong incentive to maintain their weight because the probability they will re-enter the dating market is high.”
13. Obese people gain five times more weight between Thanksgiving and new Year’s Day than they do throughout the rest of the year.
“The holidays clearly established their potential to challenge even highly experienced weight controllers,” write the authors of the study that yielded this stat. “These findings suggest that the impact of the holidays could dampen momentum for many weight controllers, leading to major lapses” in attempts to lose weight.
14. Three times as many African-American women as Caucasian women experience major weight gain while pregnant.
Women gain on average six pounds per pregnancy, according to the study yielded this stat. however, its authors warn, 15 percent to 20 percent of pregnant women experience “significant weight increases after delivery.” in this study, “the risk of very high weight increases”—defined as more than 20 pounds—“occurred three times more often among black women compared with white women.”
15. Some 70 percent of college freshmen eat fewer than five servings of fruits and vegetables daily, and more than 50 percent eat fried or high-stout fast foods at least three times a week.
These lifestyle choices, along with the fact that 29 percent engage in no aerobic exercise, contribute to the fact that 70 percent of college students have gained weight by the end of sophomore year, according to a study conducted at Washington University in Missouri.