A Brock University study published Wednesday took a closer look into the so-called Freshman 15 \u2014 the idea that students pack on 15 extra pounds in their first year of university.<\/p>\n
The study, led by Master of science in Kinesiology student Kayleigh Beaudry, has shown that while the amount of weight gained is a bit inflated, poor diet and unhealthy weight gain is a significant problem for incoming university students.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe called it the Transition Study because we were assessing how the transition from high school to university impacts the wellbeing of our students during their first-year university,\u201d said lead author Andrea Josse, an adjunct Kinesiology professor at Brock now an assistant professor at the York University School of Kinesiology and Health Science. \u201cI\u2019ve been contacted by people around the world to talk about our study. It\u2019s not groundbreaking, but it\u2019s something that happens everywhere.\u201d<\/p>\n
Food frequency questionnaires along with height, weight, waist and hip circumference and body composition were collected at the beginning and end of the first year of university from 229 female and 72 male first-year students at Brock. The researchers found that diet quality decreased over the year and alcohol intake increased, especially in males.<\/p>\n
\u201cResults from our study demonstrate that young male and female students undergo unfavourable and differential changes to their dietary intakes during the transition to university life,\u201d said Beaudry who graduated with her master\u2019s and is now a PhD candidate at the University of Waterloo.<\/p>\n
Males, in particular, compared to females, had significantly increased their consumption of doughnuts and cakes, fried chicken, beer and liquor, alongside a decrease in healthy foods such as vegetables. Both male and female students gained a significant amount of body weight, with males increasing an average of eight pounds and females four pounds.<\/p>\n
\u201cSex-specific changes were evident for nutrition indicating that males\u2019 diets were lower in quality, and body composition changes indicated that males experienced more adverse changes by gaining more body weight, waist circumference and fat mass than females,\u201d Beaudry said.<\/p>\n
Beyond just looking at weight, the study also looked at changes to body composition to determine if the weight gain could be considered healthy or unhealthy. Perhaps weight gain could be related to more time spent at a gym building muscle mass.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat was different about this paper was that while we tracked body weight, we were more interested in body composition,\u201d Josse said. \u201cWe were trying to figure out whether the weight gain was more associated with healthful outcomes or adverse outcomes.\u201d<\/p>\n
What the researchers discovered was significant increases in fat mass and waist circumference.<\/p>\n