Psychologist Steven Bray of McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario, tracked 127 students and found that most students in their first year of college participate in significantly less exercise than they did the year before.

Bray found that about one-third of college freshmen who were active in high school continued to stay active throughout their first year of college, while another one-third of freshmen active in high school stopped being active in college -- and a final one-third of freshmen inactive in high school stayed inactive in college.

"A lot of times it has to do with being too busy with school-related things, but it also comes down to changing social patterns," Bray told the Observer, the monthly magazine of the Association for Psychological Science. "They get to be friends with people who are less active than they used to be ... And so there may be a culture of inactivity that starts to take place at first-year university."

Many students, who are athletes in high school are not skilled enough to play on college sports teams no longer play sports or train.