Stress
It is normal for college students, especially freshmen, to feel abnormal levels of stress. This is more prevalent for freshmen because they are still transitioning from high school. College students can hold jobs while taking classes and may feel they have no time for studying. While freshmen might be stressed just trying to adjust to the college work load. There are hundreds of reasons for why college students get stressed, but, whatever the reason, it also can lead to weight gain. This is because when the body is stressed, it releases hormones such as adrenaline or more importantly cortisol. Cortisol has been tested to slow down the body's metabolism. Other studies have shown that when people are stressed, they have cravings for foods that are high in calories such as sweet, salty, and processed foods. Not only do people crave bad food when they are nervous or stressed, but they eat large quantities of it through continuous snacking even though they might not be hungry. Therefore an increase in weight can be seen in freshmen students even though they are eating normally.
A study done by Jatturong R. Wichianson and colleagues at the University of Southern California showed a direct relationship between eating late at night(Night eating syndrome) and stress levels with college students. They used a standardized test to measure both the levels of NES and perceived stress each student had. The results showed that students that had higher levels of stress were more likely to have Night eating syndrome due to the inability to adapt. This study shows that students who were not able to deal with stress appropriately were more likely to use late night eating to solve their issues.
Read more about this topic: Freshman Fifteen
Famous quotes containing the word stress:
“While ... we cannot and must not hide our concern for grave world dangers, and while, at the same time, we cannot build walls around ourselves and hide our heads in the sand, we must go forward with all our strength to stress and to strive for international peace. In this effort America must and will protect herself.”
—Franklin D. Roosevelt (1882–1945)
“Like all weak men he laid an exaggerated stress on not changing one’s mind.”
—W. Somerset Maugham (1874–1966)
“It is not stressful circumstances, as such, that do harm to children. Rather, it is the quality of their interpersonal relationships and their transactions with the wider social and material environment that lead to behavioral, emotional, and physical health problems. If stress matters, it is in terms of how it influences the relationships that are important to the child.”
—Felton Earls (20th century)