There was an article in the New York Times earlier this week about how the "Freshman Fifteen" is more like the "Freshman Three" or so, which made me laugh. Not in an out-loud HAHAHAHA way, but more of an isn't-that-ironic, thanks-a-lot-NYTimes-but-too-little-too-late way.
Honestly, a fear of gaining huge amounts of weight was a big contributor to my restrictive eating habits that intensified when starting college. After my initial big weight loss during middle school, I had slowly regained and maintained a healthy weight throughout high school. Then I basically starting restricting again the summer before freshman year. The idea being that I had to prepare for and counteract the inevitable Freshman Fifteen. I dropped a bit of weight then, pretty much maintained through the school year (2009-2010), and started losing again over the summer.
Obviously, the ED was caused by a LOT of factors and manifested itself way before I was even thinking about college, but I have to believe that a fear of the stereotypical freshman weight gain definitely played a role in triggering the relapse I'm still dealing with today. That's not to say that if I'd read an article over the summer of 2009 about how my fears of the Freshman Fifteen were completely unfounded I would've never returned to the eating disorder, but still. Makes me wonder. And laugh, a little.
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