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Foremost among them is the overall change in lifestylečstudents now have irregular schedules to juggle and a plethora of food choices at their fingertips, Bester said, though the problem isn’t so much the food choices as it is the amounts.

“There aren’t any bad foods,” she said. “It’s all about portion.”

Many students, in a hurry to get to practice or to finish that paper due by 4 p.m., may buzz through the line at Sorin or the HUB, grabbing whatever looks good at the moment and eating so quickly that they don’t pay attention to how much food they are consuming.

Bester’s advice is to take a quick survey of what is available upon arrival in a dining center and then plan to take moderate portions of just a few things.

Sharon Tracy, director of food services, agrees.

Portioning is harder with a grab-as-you-will system, like Sorin, and the amount of food people serve themselves generally exceeds that of a typical serving size.

Students should also pay attention to calorie count and food content. The easiest place to do this is in
Sorin, where cards containing nutrition facts accompany each dish.

However, nutritional facts are more difficult to come by for food in the HUB and the Klas Center.

Eating habits aren’t the only thing contributing to student weight gain. A large portion of students do not get exercise on a regular basis, Bester said.

She believes part of the reason for this, beyond busy schedules and late-night studying, may be that students who aren’t athletes are intimidated by Walker Fieldhouse and the Hamline athletes who frequent it.

Regardless of the reason, however, Bester believes that it is important for students to attempt some regular physical activity.

Another major issue that may contribute to weight gain is the sudden and liberal access to alcoholic beverages that accompanies college life.

An average beer has around 150 calories, and the beverages Bester describes as “frou-frou drinks” (margaritas, daiquiris, etc.) often contain between 500 and 600 or as many as 800 calories in a single drink.

So while the freshman fifteen may be a myth, freshman weight gain is very much a reality.

A minimal change in diet, however, can help reduce the dangers of the seemingly inevitable packing on pounds. According to the Cornell study, college weight gain generally results from eating about 174 more calories a day than are expended. That’s a pretty small numberča Big Mac has nearly five times that number of calories. It’s an amount to keep in mind the next time a candy bar or bag of Doritos calls your name.