Before heading off to college, new students are bombarded with advice—don’t take 8 a.m. classes, talk to your roommate, and wash your sheets.
But one warning stands out year after year: beware of the “freshman 15,” the weight gain that many students experience during their first year of college.
Now, new research led by Y. Alicia Hong at George Mason University helps explain why this phenomenon is so common—and it has more to do with environment and social habits than willpower.
The study was published in the journal mHealth.
“Social and environmental factors are key determinants of eating behavior,” said Hong, a professor in the Department of Health Administration and Policy who studies mobile and wearable technologies.
“College students are especially influenced by where they eat and who they eat with. We found that they tend to eat more when dining in groups or in formal settings such as dining halls.”
To better understand how eating habits form, Hong and her interdisciplinary research team asked college students to track their daily food intake, mood, stress, and surroundings for four weeks using a mobile app.
The app collected real-time data on what, when, and where students ate—offering a more accurate picture of their eating behaviors than traditional surveys.
The findings revealed a clear pattern: students consumed significantly more calories when eating with others, especially in dining halls or restaurants. By contrast, they tended to eat less when they were alone or eating at home.
These results highlight how the college social environment—shared meals, buffet-style dining, and late-night snacks with friends—can unknowingly promote overeating.
The study also showed that students are often unaware of how much they eat. Many underestimated their calorie intake, suggesting that perception and reality don’t always match when it comes to diet.
Emotional and gender differences further complicated the picture, with stress, mood, and social pressure influencing when and how much students ate.
“College students’ eating behaviors are complex,” said Hong. “Individual habits, social interactions, and environmental cues all work together to shape how much and what they eat.”
The research team—including Larry Cheskin, Distinguished University Professor in Nutrition and Food Studies, Hong Xue, Associate Professor in Health Administration and Policy, and Jo-Vivian Yu, a master’s graduate in Health Informatics—believes these insights can guide new strategies for healthier eating on campus.
According to Hong, the findings underscore the importance of context when designing nutrition programs. By using digital tools like mobile apps, researchers and universities can better track students’ eating behaviors and create personalized interventions.
Ultimately, the “freshman 15” may not be inevitable—but understanding the social and environmental forces behind it is the first step to helping students make healthier choices during one of life’s biggest transitions.
If you care about weight loss, please read studies that avocado could help you lose weight and belly fat, and a keto diet for weight loss can cause flu-like symptoms.
For more health information, please see recent studies about unhealthy plant-based diets linked to metabolic syndrome, and these antioxidants could help reduce dementia risk.
Source: George Mason University.
