Diet fads are always moving in and out of popularity in our society as food, eating and body trends change, but one that has gained much popularity in recent years is intermittent fasting. This term refers to a strict scheduled diet where participants do not eat for a certain amount of time each day or week. While it may work for some, intermittent fasting should not be practiced by college students because the negative effects and risks outweigh the potential benefits.

This diet can have a variety of positive and negative effects on those who attempt it. On the one hand, it obviously has some success for those trying to lose weight, and it can reduce inflammation and prevent related conditions that come with that, like arthritis, asthma and strokes.

On the other hand, it can increase hunger, fatigue, insomnia, nausea and headaches. For some, these side effects may go away within a month, but that is not a guarantee. For college students, these side effects could be amplified by pre-existing issues from their hectic lifestyles.

It’s certainly well known that college students are chronically tired. Around 60% of college students suffer from poor sleep quality and over 7% experience insomnia. This is often because of school schedules and stress, and it can have negative effects on their performance and grade point averages.

Chances are, if I’m in class and say, “Ugh I’m so tired today,” the vast majority of the students around me will grunt in agreement. With papers, exams, athletics, clubs and any attempt at a social life, college students hardly have time to sleep, and often choose to stay awake into the late hours of the night.

When you add this inherent tiredness to the fatigue that often accompanies intermittent fasting, you reach an unsustainable level of exhaustion that is not healthy for any student to maintain, especially not while pursuing a career and life-dictating degree.

On top of this, many students experience changes in their eating habits when they come to college that come from factors like newfound independence, academic stress, athletic pressures, access to healthy food and schedule changes. These changes can contribute to eating disorders, which are alarmingly common among college students. Unfortunately, 10-20% of women and 4-10% of men in college have an eating disorder.

The prevalence of diet culture among young adults only amplifies this risk, so it is safer for college students to avoid diets such as intermittent fasting to protect their mental and physical well-being.

A big part of these diet changes is learning how to eat at college, especially on specific college meal plans. As somebody who is on the lowest meal plan here at Fordham with 14 meals each week, I can confidently say that Fordham’s meal plans do not promote intermittent fasting. 

With my sleep and class schedule and eating habits, which I would consider fairly average, I’m not always eating or needing to eat three meals a day, and somehow, even when I’ve felt like all my meals should be used up, I almost always have extra before they reset on Thursday nights.

Even if I were to use all of my meals before they reset, my meal plan, which comes with 500 dining dollars that can get me a meal at the majority of campus dining venues, is more than enough to get me through the semester.

For adults, as long as they know their body and its needs and they’re consulting with their doctor, intermittent fasting can be worth it as long as it’s done correctly. For college students, however, there are more dangers in a diet like this or any diet for that matter. The discipline it requires can be difficult to achieve on the schedule of a college student, and failures can be discouraging and lead to negative emotions.

As a whole, dieting as a college student is entering some risky territory, and should only be done with medical supervision to ensure proper practices. It can be tough to eat healthy on a college student’s diet and lifestyle, so it is understandable why some students turn to diets like intermittent fasting, but that is often not the best way to get healthy. Learning your body’s cues and needs can help make healthy eating easier, instead of resorting to strict dieting that may not even be successful.

Molly O’Connor, FCRH ’28, is a journalism major from Weymouth, Mass.