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Suzana Brborovic

Ms. Hofmann

English 1102

21 April 2014
NOTE TO READER: Editing this essay was a challenge for me because I am so used to
writing informative research papers. I really had to look at some parts and think about what I
should do differently. Re-doing my introduction is what I am most proud of because it looks
and sounds so much better than what I had previous. If I could revise further Id probably had
some more information maybe some more personal statements from people. I am also proud of
the paragraph that I added where my friend talks about her habits and choices.

Health and Exercise in College Students
When I was in high school I never really worried about eating healthy or getting any
type of exercise. My favorite thing was to go to sonic almost every other day after school
and get a chocolate milkshake. Once I graduated I spent the summer in Europe with my
family. The longer that I spent in Serbia, the more I realized how different everything was
there. People had a different mind set when it came to eat properly. Home cooked meals
were the norm there and there was no sonic to go to everyday. The food was prepared
differently with more emphasis on vegetables and meat. I was so surprised that I spent the
entire summer eating as much or more than I wanted and at the end I lost like 3 pounds.
When I stepped onto the scale I was so shocked, but determined to keep this healthy
weight loss trend going. Coming into freshman year, I decided that it was either now or
never to change my habits. In my first semester of college, after healthy eating and exercise
I lost almost ten pounds. This is what has sparked my interest in being healthy. I am
curious as to how exercise and health affects other college students in my position.
Coming into college one of the many things that I was afraid of was the freshman fifteen.
The freshman fifteen is the belief that first year college students gain an average of fifteen
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pounds. In my opinion the freshman fifteen has many different factors and influences. One factor
that affects students weight gain would be that college students do not get the proper
information about their body, weight control, and nutrition. Without the proper information it is
next to impossible to change your habits. Then there is the other side of this argument; this side
would be the students that are apathetic about the aspect. When asking students why they eat
what they eat everyone will answer it tastes good or it smells good because thats what their
senses are telling them. Those two are valid reason for the choices that we make.
All of the information that college students gather is generally from the Internet.
Sometimes the Internet can be helpful and other times it can be very biased. There are millions of
fab diets that college students will try in order to lose weight or even gain muscle. Some of these
fab diets are The Zone and Optifast (Tsang). A week before our spring break this year I
remember hearing a lot of girls talking about how they wanted to lose weight so they looked
good in a bikini. One girl talked about only eating salad for a whole week while another
suggested not eating at all for the entire week. This is a great example of how misguided and
mislead these girls are. Not eating correctly and skipping meals is the way to throw off your
body. Not only does this ruin your health it can also result in weight gain. In order to gain muscle
or lose weight it is important to keep the proper 2,000-calorie diet. Of course I know that being
misguided is not the only factor that plays into this situation. A lot of girls see how a model looks
and they think that they have to starve themselves in order to get like this. For many years people
have been trying to improve females opinions on their bodies. However this is impossible
because no matter how many times someone is told they are beautiful until they see it through
their eyes it does not matter.
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If we focus on the healthy eating part of the college students diet we find that it is very
lacking. It was determined that 40% of the money that students spend is spent on fast food and
sit down restaurants (Monteiro). I know this statistic to be true because my friends and even
myself are guilty of it. My roommate will always comment how all of the money that she spends
is on food. Quite frankly every college student is guilty of that midnight food craving which
results in that late night trip to cookout. Health and nutrition are also two big things that college
students tend to ignore. Freshmen are the most at risk because they have been eating home
cooked meals their whole life. Now that they are in college they have the freedom to choose their
own meals. Of course taste is a huge factor when it comes to picking ones meals. I know Im
not the only one who gets random Japanese food cravings where it is literally the only thing I
want to eat. Cravings are things that everyone experiences. Some people can handle cravings and
make healthy choices while other people can only give in. Skipping breakfast is another common
mistake that many college students make. Research shows that those who skip breakfast
regularly tend to have a harder time losing weight (Monteiro). A lot of students rarely get the
right amount of sleep and as a result sleep through breakfast until their first class. In a tired
students opinion getting more sleep is more important than getting up to eat breakfast.
Another important concept that college students do not grasp is the fact that these three
meals have to be balanced. Studies show that over 80% of students understand the concept of
eating a balanced meal however of that percentage only 7% actually use it on the daily basis
(Barzegari and Mohsen 1012). However, this study also showed that 51% of students wanted to
have balanced meals and were leaning towards a healthier diet. (Barzegari and Mohsen 1013).
Most college students are a lot of talk and no action. By this I mean that they want to change
their habits and say they will, but never do. It is said that it takes forty days in order to break a
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habit. Which means if for forty days you actually eat healthy and ignore food that is not good for
you that you can actually make a difference in your diet.
Roughly about 65% of Americans are overweight and college students about 35%
overweight (American College Student Association). The method is determining if someone is
underweight, overweight, or normal weight is known as BMI. BMI stands for body mass index
and it works but comparing your weight and height to determine which category you fall into.
We can use my information as an example BMI. I weigh about 143 pounds and I am 5 feet and 6
inches tall, my BMI would be 23.1 placing me into the normal weight category. The underweight
category is 18.5 and below, normal weight is 18.5-24.9, overweight is 25-29.9, and obese is 30
or higher (Barzegari and Mohsen 1012). This scale however has been based on the Caucasian
race and does not take a lot of things into factor. Muscle weighs more than fat, which is why a lot
of people who have almost no body fat and are completely muscular are considered to be
overweight according to the BMI. This is a prime example of why the BMI calculator is not
accurate because it doesnt factor in all of these different things. BMI relates to my exploration
because it gives you background on how your weight state is actually calculated. It is important
to have background on your topic because it can show how something that people use regularly
is calculated.
I took a few minutes and asked my friends some questions about the daily decisions that
they make. I asked my friend, Hollyann, what she eats usually. She described to me a typical
lunch which consisted of pizza, a sandwich, milk, and yogurt. I asked her why she ate these
things. She answered that she loves pizza so shell usually eat a piece, but not more than that.
She also said the milk and yogurt were the more healthy parts of her meal, which she was proud
of. Hollyann also told me that she eats what she wants because it makes her happy. After she eats
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all this food shell spend 60 minutes at the gym and does not feel guilty if she eats junk food. I
found her perspective to be very interesting, but after asking around more I found it to be very
common. Many students will eat what they please and make sure to maintain the proper amount
of exercise. This makes me proud of my generation that there are students who actually know
that they have to exercise in order to maintain their weight. These students know that its okay to
eat not as healthy as long as they exercise. I support this because if I had to pick over eating
healthy or getting the proper exercise almost every time I would pick the second option.
College students have some of the most stressful schedules. A full time student has 12
credits or more. Too add to this full course load the student may also participate in sports, be a
part of a sorority/fraternity, and be active in clubs. This causes a full schedule that does not really
leave room for getting the appropriate amount of exercise. However exercising comes in all
kinds of different forms. One exercising method many fit one person while another person may
not even find that activity as a form of exercise. As long as there is continuous strenuous
movement for thirty minutes a couple times a week it is considered exercise (duPont). Walking,
jogging, running, swimming, and even skipping are considered a form of exercise. Since college
students have such strict schedules it is hard to leave room for exercise. However exercise can be
achieved through time management and scheduling, which are two things that a college student
should be very familiar. Exercise is something that is beneficial not only for your body, but also
for your mind (duPont). Exercise keeps people healthy, but the fact that it helps your mind
should be something that students take seriously. A lot of students do not see exercise as useful
or they are too lazy to go and do any type of physical activity except the walk from the bed to the
fridge. Yet exercise has been proven to improve academics and even increase a students GPA
(Neubert). At a study conducted at Purdue University, the students who exercised a few times a
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week showed significant improvement in their academics. Regular gym goers tended to have a
GPA of 3.10 or higher, while the students that only went sometimes had a GPA of 3.06 higher
(Neubert). This is a significant influence that exercising has over academics. It shows how not
only does exercise make you healthy it can also help you to do better in your classes. Another
benefit of exercise is that I can suppress hunger, which can lead to weight loss. When you work
out your body releases endorphins, which in turn affect your mood and cause less cravings
(Hedman). This is good because when you eat you will consume a healthy amount of food
instead of being in danger of overeating. Also the fact that it affects your mood and improves
your overall day can be huge positive factor on your life.
Kayla Hedman states, Building a healthy relationship with exercise for personal
wellness is important for every individual, especially college students (Hedman). From all of
the different information that I have gathered I have determined that proper eating and being
healthy are two things are do not come easy to college students. Thinking through my own
experiences, I know that being healthy is very hard when there are so many junk food options in
front of you. I have learned that it takes forty days to break a habit. This shows that if you can
discipline yourself for a period of time you can teach yourself to eat better. Not only is being
healthy important, but so is getting the proper exercise. Exercising helps to improve your overall
health, manage your weight, and even improve your grades. We also know that finding time to
exercise in college is one of the hardest things to do. Likewise we know that we have twenty-
four hours in a day and with proper time management it can be done. I can vouch for this
because I myself manage to exercise, eat healthy, and still get all of my homework done in a
timely manner. I would like to conclude by saying that college is hard, exercise is important, and
staying healthy can be done through hard work and motivation.
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Works Cited

American College Health Association (2008). National College Health Assessment. Reference
group executive summary. www.acha.org
Barzegari, Ali, and Mohsen Ebrahimi. "A Study of Nutrition Knowledge, Attitudes and Food
Habits of College Students." World Applied Sciences Journal. 15.7 (2011): n. page. Print.
<http://www.researchgate.net/publication/256506024_A_study_of_Nutrition_kno
wledge_attitudes_and_food_habits_of_college_students/file/72e7e52331761996d b.pdf>.

duPont, Alfred. "Food & Fitness." Kids Health. Nemours Foundation, n.d. Web. 22 Mar 2014.
<http://kidshealth.org/teen/food_fitness/>.

Hedman, Kayla. "Avoiding the Dreaded College Weight Gain: The Importance of
Exercise for College Students." . Huffington Post, 17 Jan 2014. Web. 22 Mar 2014.
<http://www.huffingtonpost.com/kayla-hedman/fit-over-fat-college-
exercise_b_4603895.html>.

Monteiro, Andreia C., Miljana Jeremic, and Michael C. Budden. "Can We Have Fries With That,
Please? Nutrition And Physical Activities Among College Students." Contemporary
Issues in Education Research (CIER) 3.11 (2010): 1-10.

Neubert, Amy. "Purdue News." College students working out at campus gyms get better grades.
N.p., 13 Apr. 2013. Web. 1 Feb. 2014.
<https://www.purdue.edu/newsroom/releases/2013/Q2/college-students-working- out-at-
campus-gyms-get-better-grades.html>.

Tsang, Rebekah. "The College Student's Perception of Healthful Eating." Undergraduate
Research Community. 10. (2011): n. page. Web. 23 Mar. 2014.
<http://www.kon.org/urc/v10/tsang.html>.