Weight Management Of College Students Essay Samples

Eating is essential for us to function well and to be able to do the things that we need to do every day. Not to mention, we tend to eat a lot when we are faced with a ton of stress. College is a very crucial stage in a student because it’s the transition of being a young adult to becoming a real adult. At this point, the students choose what field they would want to work in the future. While this is fine for the students who chose the course they really love, some might not do the same for personal reasons. And thus, they are subjected to a lot more stress and pressure. There are several factors to which why a college student is faced with weight management issues.
According to studies, on the average, students gain three to 10 pounds during the first and second years of their college life (Hirsch). This is commonly known as the Freshman 15. Because college is a bigger world that offers to teach students how to survive the real world, temptations to do risky activities arise. This is the point where students usually leave their families to live in the university dorms. While this transition might not be that big, some students are greatly affected by this. This is a new accumulated freedom where you can do whatever you want, eat whatever you want, whenever you want it. The students are free to do what they want without their parents supervising them. This is the first time in their lives that they would feel in full control of what’s going to happen in their lives. Risky and crucial activities like drinking alcohol, smoking, having sex, and doing drugs may be involved during this stage.
Weight management issues usually arise from poor eating habits. Some students tend to have poor time management, too. So, as a result, they are likely to eat fast food in order to have more time for the school-related things. They choose poorly and sacrifice the nutritional value of food rather than eating what’s healthy and good for them for the sake of having much more time in doing school works. Because these foods are not healthy, they lack the vitamins and minerals that the body should have every day. Some students also skip meals and this results to weight gain especially if they skip breakfast, which is the most important meal of the day (Warner).
If the students don’t manage their time well, it is likely that they also don’t have time for exercise, unless their classes include some physical activities. Exercising and keeping their bodies fit is very important because of their every day activities. In college, you attend classes, make assignments, and take exams. These are all strenuous activities for the brain. If they are not eating well, it is dangerous to have no exercise at all. With this, they gain weight. For men, they tend to eat a lot but they compensate by spending time in doing sports for exercise. For women, they are less likely to exercise even though they know that they gain weight. They become more self-conscious and this adds to the stress that they are experiencing.
Stress is very common in college students. The transition from being dependent to the parents to being independent and live on their own can be a very stressful experience to some students. The main purpose of college is for the preparation of the students to seek job after graduation (Ozberak). And thus, the workload at the college level is much more higher than that of the high school level. This can induce stress to the students and can result to overeating.
Personal relations can also affect one’s being. Family is a big factor in this field. Everyone is expecting something good from you. Everyone have high hopes that you will succeed. While this should have a positive effect on a person, sometimes, it’s the other way around. College students give into pressure easily. It’s good if it is working but it’ll be bad if it adds to the student’s stress.
Mental health can also be a factor in weight gain. Bipolar disorder, depression, and eating disorder will have an effect on one’s food intake. Bipolar disorder is having very high or manic, and very low or depression episodes (Centre for Addiction and Mental Health). Manic episodes happen when the person have excessive energy and has a high tendency to perform risky activities. Depression can result to overeating. Binge eating disorder and bulimia nervosa would automatically increase the person’s weight.
Because college students are free to do whatever they want, they would want to try drinking alcohol. This is because alcohol drinking has a restriction, that you need to be 18 or above in order to drink it. If you’ve lived your whole life under the supervision of your parents, you would want to try all things on your own, especially the things that they forbid you to do when you were younger. College can be very challenging so at the end of the week, students would want to unwind, to relax, and to relieve stress. Drinking alcohol, and maybe, smoking, would do the trick. But because these are all unhealthy, together with poor weight management, the students gain weight.
In conclusion, weight gain is the result when one student fails to adapt well into the new environment he or she is in. Factors like stress, poor time management, lack of exercise, and poor eating and drinking habits would definitely make college students gain weight. With all of these in mind, adjusting one’s time management would probably lessen the tendency to gain weight. If there were enough time for every activity, the student would have time to consume healthy food, exercise, and drink alcohol in the right amount.

Works Cited

Centre for Addiction and Mental Health. Bipolar Disorder. Centre for Addiction and Mental Health, 25 October 2012. Web. 30 March 2015.
Hirsch, L. Beating the Freshman 15. The Nemours Foundation, January 2014. Web. 29 March 29, 2015.
Ozberak, C. The Social Factors of College Lifestyle that may Cause Weight Gain in Undergraduate Students. University of New Hampshire, 10 May 2010. Web. 29 March 2015.
Warner, J. Freshman 15: College Weight Gain Is Real. WebMD, LLC, 28 July 2009. Web. 29 March 2015.