title: The Freshman 15: is it real?
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  The belief that college students gain 15 lbs during freshman year is widespread, yet the evidence for this is limited. The authors aimed to determine whether college students gain weight during freshman year.
  
  
  METHODS
  The authors studied unmarried freshmen living on-campus at a private university in the northeastern United States.
  
  
  METHODS
  The authors used an online survey to collect information about social behaviors and weight.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The authors observed an average weight gain of 2.7 lbs. About half of the students gained weight, and 15% lost weight. Men gained more weight than did women.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Freshman weight gain was 5.5 times greater than that experienced by the general population.
authors.affiliation: Department of Pediatrics, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, UT 84132, USA. nicole.mihalopoulos@hsc.utah.edu
authors.forename: Nicole L
authors.initials: NL
authors.lastname: Mihalopoulos
authors.forename: Peggy
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Auinger
authors.forename: Jonathan D
authors.initials: JD
authors.lastname: Klein
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D015992:Body Mass Index; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D012737:Sex Factors; D013334:Students / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D014481:United States; D014495:Universities; D015430:Weight Gain