What is written in this article will most likely not come as a shock to you at all; in fact, it is almost obvious. The basic gist is that as college students go from being first years to seniors, they become much more sedentary. I recently heard about a study that was being done by Indiana University exercise physiologist Jeanne Johnston that showed that seniors were significantly more sedentary than their freshman counter parts.

Like I said before, this is not shocking, but I did think it was interesting to see something other than the Freshman-15 being studied. Most of the time we just hear about freshman gaining that “fifteen” pounds during their first year due to lack of sleep, increase in stress, increase in consumption of unhealthy foods, decrease in exercise, increase in alcohol consumption, and so on and so forth. However, in Johnston’s study, she found that students came out of college much less active and in turn, much heavier than they were when they first stepped on to the University grounds.  In her study, she conducted a survey that asked the undergraduate students about the amount of physical activity their participated in. Her conclusion from these responses is that there is a dramatic decrease in even moderate activity. Moderate activities would include activities that increase the breathing and heart rates of a person. Not only that, but the older the student got, the less they walked. How much less did they walk? Well, Johnston’s study showed that first year students spent 648 minutes of their week walking. Seniors, on the other hand, spent 436 minutes. One reason why this might be is because the seniors make more use of the buses that run from one end of the campus to the other. Perhaps seniors have more access to cars, or maybe they just are not going to class; whatever the reason, there is a really big different between these values.

Aside from earning a degree, an online degree from a nutrition program is a fantastic choice, one of the most important aspects for a student to strive for in college is to be healthy. It is important to take care of yourself and to watch your well-being.