Many college-bound freshmen are worrying about more than just who their roommates will be this fall. They may also be nervous about the well-known fact that they are likely to gain weight this school year. Or will they? While many of us remember the extra weight that showed up right around the start of our college careers, we are not always clear on how much weight we realize gained or why. Many nutrition experts and psychologists think that it is the change in environment and the stress of a new beginning that cause the typical college freshmen to gain extra pounds. As students start a new stage of their lives, many eat to deal with the stress of change or loneliness. Often, college students are making meals or choosing foods independently for the first time in their lives. If they live in the college dormitory, they have a wide variety of foods to select from that may be higher in calories and fatter than the foods they consumed living at home. In addition, college social events usually center around food. I clearly remember sitting in my dorm cafeteria for two or three hours on a Saturday morning socializing with my new friends. Instead of eating only one meal, we would start with breakfast, eat throughout the duration of our socializing, and finish with lunch. Food also makes an appearance after late-night parties, as part of a school day, or simply to break the monotony( ). So will this year's typical freshmen really gain 15 pounds? According to a 2006 Tufts University study, students enrolling in college this fall will gain weight, but maybe not the assumed 15 pounds. Based on the students surveyed, the study found that men can expect to gain an average of 6 pounds and women an average of 4.5 pounds during the freshman year. From the writer's experience, the writer thinks that   _  .
foods in the dorm cafeteria are all higher in calories and fatter the best way to break the monotony is through breakfast, lunch and supper students in college will gain an average of about 5.25 pounds every fall social events in the college are usually celebrated around food