Manya Chylinski's The Dorm Room Diet

Freshmen students entering their first year of college are faced with stress and change, and possible changes in body weight and body image. A common and highly publicized notion among college students is the high risk of gaining the dreaded “Freshman 15” which refers to the potential for excessive weight gain during freshman year. Although some individuals believe that the “Freshman Fifteen” is a farce, studies show that students indeed gain weight as they enter their first year away from home. The idea of weight change has filled college campuses for decades and still floods the minds of freshmen believers. It is so widespread that Daphne Oz, author of the recently released book, “The Dorm Room Diet,” specifically targets college students …show more content…
These forces include the processes of adapting to a new lifestyle. For example, freshman students are typically away from parental guidance and free to eat what they want. There are so many eating temptations. In “Campus Wellness & Fitness,” Manya Chylinski states that freshmen students “can pile on the portions in the dining hall, eat dinners of fries and ice cream, and indulge in sugary and salty snacks to fuel late-night study sessions.” Students may increase their energy intake (i.e. additional calories) and/or decrease their physical activity (Chylinski, Manya 2009). Many students tend to exercise less after high school because their changing daily routines could affect the time spent on physical activity. “Making the transition from home and high school to university can be difficult, university students are busy with class, homework and socializing, more so than high school” (Ritter, 2006, p. 1). The pressure of acclimating to college can trigger weight change. People sometimes eat or fail to eat in response to anxiety, homesickness, sadness, or stress (Hartsoe, 2006; Mancini, 2007). They may begin or increase the use of alcohol and drugs (Freshman Fifteen, 2007; Waehner, 2007). Such behaviors intensify the problems young people deal with on a day-to-day …show more content…
In the new environment, social interactions occur that may affect the importance freshmen students place on appearance. The body image construct is a dynamic concept that can be defined to incorporate various meanings. For this study, Cash’s (2002) definitions of body image investment and evaluation (body satisfaction/dissatisfaction) was used as the focused construct of body image. The two body image elements of investment in and evaluation of appearance function as central organizers of the cognitive, emotional, and behavioral processes of environmental events (Cash & Pruzinsky, 2002). One’s cognitive investment in appearance is an important facet of the body image construct (Cash, 2002; Cash & Pruzinsky, 2002). Psychologists suggest that the cognitive investment in appearance (mental picture of one’s physical body components) is perceptually based and that perception is essentially real for the person (i.e. potentially an accurate representation of the measurable, pre-existing, external reality) (Blood, 2005; Henriques, Hollway, Urwin, Venn, & Walkerdine, 1984). Due to changing, surrounding forces, freshmen college students may experience distress about their bodies that are caused by concerns about physical