The Freshman 15 myth: Twenty-five percent actually lose weight in first year of college

Patricia Smith heard her share of horror stories as she headed into her freshman year of college. And most of those stories revolved around weight.

“When I was a freshman, it was the Freshman Five,” said Smith, University of Michigan-Dearborn economics professor.

The initial belief was that most freshmen gained five pounds during their first year at school. But over the years, the highly-publicized notion ballooned to the Freshman 15, meaning most freshman gain 15 pounds during their first year in college. Smith, however, doesn’t believe in the Freshman 15 and said she has the research to prove it.

“The Freshman 15 is largely a myth,” she said. “Most people don’t gain that much weight their freshman year.”

Smith, along with another professor from Ohio State University, sampled thousands of college freshmen throughout the country to determine whether they fell victim to the Freshman 15. But on average, Smith said freshmen only gained about three pounds during their first year.

Twenty-five percent of them actually lost weight during their first year, Smith said. Smith contends initial research on the Freshman 15 didn’t represent a broad range of students. Her research is the first of its kind in that she uses data from students across the country. Smith’s findings will be published in December’s edition of Social Science Quarterly.

“Instead of a spike in weight during the freshman year, college-educated individuals exhibit moderate, but steady weight gain during and after college,” according to her research.

Smith hopes her research will prompt media outlets to stop publishing stories about the Freshman 15. Frequent warnings about weight gain could lead some students to engage in unhealthy behaviors, Smith said.

“We’d like to see people be more accurate about this,” said Smith, who doesn’t believe the Freshman Three sounds as attractive to the media. “It’s not catchy. It’s not dramatic.”

Smith also hopes her research will benefit anti-obesity efforts. Stemming and reversing the obesity trend is important because it could reduce public and private healthcare costs and improve labor productivity, she said.

“Anti-obesity efforts directed specifically at college freshmen will likely have little impact on obesity prevalence among young adults,” according to her research.