The "Freshman 15" is a notorious part of the first year of college, and something many people obsess over. While visiting all of my family during the holidays one of the first questions or comments I got from everyone was if I had gained weight. This is not necessarily a bad thing because you are in a new environment with stress and, at least for me, much more exposure to healthy foods, so these question could very much refer to losing weight. However, I know all of these questions stem from the popularity of the so-called "Freshman 15." I realized that the blame for the common weight gain should not rest solely on the shoulders of the students. With free access to a state of the art gym, unlimited healthy food options and walking all over campus for classes, most students are probably doing their best to fight off this phenomenon. Instead, the blame should rest with the college meal plan everyone is forced to get.

Of course the plans are a good thing since they allow the students to eat; however, there are many problems with the plans. Unlimited plans are the most popular plan now, but more structured plans still exist. More structured plans, like the Standard Plan at my school, have a certain amount of money that must be used at every meal. If this money is not used, it simply disappears. To me this is a complete waste of money and does not leave any money for snacks or dessert.

The other plan that we have is Flex, so a certain amount of money is put on our card and we have the entire semester to spend it as we please on food. This plan is great for people like me who don't want to wake up for breakfast every day, or who would rather fill up their water bottle than buy a soda. Even though this plan allows me to buy food as I please, as weight and money conscious as I am, it still puts pressure on me to buy food. I get alerts often telling me the target amount I should be at and the money has to be under a certain amount to roll over, if it will at all. The threat of simply losing money if not spent by a certain time and the pressure felt to eat more food that is not needed just to see the balance decline should be the number one factors blamed for the freshman 15, not the students.

These problems could be fixed if the meal plan system is updated. It is unacceptable that in this economy money is just being thrown away and spent for no reason other than spending it. I know these institutions have to estimate an appropriate amount of money that will allow the students to buy all of the necessary meals, but everyone's appetite is different. If colleges changed their meal plan system and the unused money could be reimbursed, money would stop being wasted and college freshman might stop gaining the expected 15 pounds. I know the extra $400 in my flex account right now could be put to a lot better use than buying food that I do not want.