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The first year of college is a very important year for many students. It’s likely the first time you move away from home and the first time you find yourself in a new place with new friends, new hobbies and new experiences. It’s the time to figure out who you are away from the influence of parents.

Many new, exciting and important parts of life will change in the first year of college, but one of those is not your weight.

Despite prevailing worries about the Freshman 15, the least important part of your first year is the number on the scale.

First-year college students typically need to learn a wide variety of new skills to function as adults. There are no parents to urge you to finish your homework; there is no school bell to signal the start of your next class. It’s really important to learn how to be your own manager, to figure out how to motivate yourself and take care of yourself when there is no one else to do it. This skill alone is so crucial to succeeding in college and life in general, not just your first year.

But throughout your life, your weight will be the least crucial thing to pay attention to.

The biggest argument against the Freshman 15 concept is that it is not real. The phrase first popped up in Seventeen Magazine in the late 1980s. Seventeen Magazine had a habit of fearmongering to its young and impressionable audience of teenage girls, driving home the idea that gaining weight is the worst possible thing that could happen. However, at no surprise to anyone, this idea was not based on any science.

In fact, the science that does exist disproves the Freshman 15 entirely. A 2008 study found that first-year students gained an average of only 2.6 pounds. One-third of those students did not gain weight at all, and a handful even lost weight.

A different study conducted in 2011 reported similar results, with first-years gaining an average of 2.5-3.5 pounds. This study also compared college students to their noncollege peers of the same age, and they found that college students only gained an extra half of a pound in comparison.

The results of these studies show that weight gain in the first year of college is so little, especially in comparison to their same-age counterparts, that it is practically meaningless.

Your weight is, and always will be, the least interesting thing about you.

There are several better ways to use your time during your first year than to worry about your weight. One of the best parts of being on a college campus for the first time is discovering the clubs. There are so many cool hobbies to adopt and interesting clubs to join. The sheer number of them at Colorado State University was overwhelming when I first started looking into them.

The first year is also a time to make new friends. It’s a fresh start for most students. I will not deny it: Making friends in the first few weeks of college can be hard and scary, but these friendships are very important. They might not be the lifelong friends you hear your parents talking about, but they are crucial to finding your place in college nonetheless. I strongly suggest focusing on friendships more than how much you weigh; it will have a much stronger impact on your college experience.

The Freshman 15 is not real. It is totally made up and, more importantly, so uninteresting. No one cares if you gained 15 pounds. No one cares how much you weighed in high school nor after your drastic life change. Your weight is, and always will be, the least interesting thing about you.

Reach Audrey Weishaar at letters@collegian.com or on social media @RMCollegian.