2 months into freshman year and I already have the freshman 15

Student Lounge College Life
1

<p>Hi all...I need help! I had a doctor's appointment today (unrelated to this post) and found out I have gained 15 pounds in the my first two months of college. I guess I knew that I had been getting heavier since I have been struggling to put on my jeans the past couple weeks, but I didn't realize I had gained this much weight partly because I started wearing more forgiving clothing (leggings, dresses, etc.) more often.</p>

<p>I really do not know how this has happened since I have not been watching what I eat and doing yoga three times a week. I spoke to my mom and she was not too helpful - she basically told me not to worry since it was my body changing as I got older. I also spoke with my boyfriend (we have been dating for 2 years) and he just comforted me. </p>

<p>I know increasing my exercising would help and I plan to do that. I am not too into sports except golf (it took me 13 minutes to run a mile in high school), but I love yoga. Also, I just want to make sure everyone knows that starting out, I was on the medium/heavier side of healthy for my height, so I am not some 90 pound girl complaining. </p>

<p>I need to know what I should do? Have any of you girls out there had similar experiences? Please tell because I feel like I am the only person who has gained this much weight. :(</p>

2

<p>When I was in college I gained weight when I lived on campus and ate the dorm food, I think it is inevitable. Yoga is a great way to relieve stress but to burn calories you need to do something aerobic. There isn’t anything wrong with jogging a 13 minute mile. Walking is good also. The elliptical and stair master machines at the gym are good. If all else fails you won’t be in college forever. Once you get away from the dorm food it will be easier to keep your weight down. Also, doctor’s scales weigh heavy, maybe the situation isn’t as bad as feared.</p>

3

<p>Calorie counting is by far the most important thing, in my opinion (and many others). You can exercise until the cows come home, and thats great - having muscle rather than fat and being tone are helpful things, but if you out-eat what you are burning you just won’t lose weight.</p>

<p>I’ve been 60+ pounds overweight at one point, so when I was in college while many of my friends packed on pounds from the countless opportunities to eat, I already knew better. Just keep a food log and be honest, it may be hard because you’re probably eating in a cafeteria, but when I was on campus the cafeteria had nutritional information up for the food items. I also looked at the menu before hand to decide what I was eating so I didn’t make any spur of the moment decisions.</p>

<p>A recent study suggests that the “freshman 15” is mostly due to late night snacking, not drinking or overeating at meals, so avoid late night snacking, or at least have healthy things like an orange, banana, apple, etc.</p>

4

<p>Join ROTC…I’ve lost weight from all the PT I’ve been doing, it’s great.</p>

5

<p>If you like yoga, you might like pilates, or a mix of the two. Pea is right, you should find something aerobic that you enjoy. Yoga <em>can</em> be aerobic, but it has to be very dynamic. As far as your diet goes, cut the junk that seems to sneak into dorm rooms and if you guys are ordering out a lot–pizza, breadsticks, chinese–try to decrease the frequency, be conscious of what you’re ordering and the portions you’re consuming.</p>

6

<p>While exercise is great, it’s mainly about counting calories. It doesn’t necessarily even matter what you eat, you just need to consume less calories to lose weight. I just read a study on it from a nutritionist.</p>

7

<p>I don’t know about your school, but here they have lots of 1-hour PhysEd courses that people take as electives (weight training, running, swimming, etc). I’m doing one next semester.</p>

8

<p>In my opinion losing weight is easier than ever in college. Depending on the variety of food your school has, you pretty much have complete control over what you eat. Just because cheeseburgers, fries, and pizza are offered everyday for lunch doesn’t mean you have to eat them. Just because bacon is offered with breakfast doesn’t mean you need it, and just because your school might have every kind of sugary cereal you never got to eat at home doesn’t mean you need it.</p>

<p>Instead you can choose to have salad for lunch and choose to find healthy options for dinner. Take a look at your school’s dining services website, their should be some sort of section offering nutritional information. Becoming aware of what you eat is very important. Even with exercising you’re not doing yourself any favors by just eating whatever without thinking about what’s in it.</p>

<p>Plus even if you supposedly don’t necessarily need to eat only healthy food to lose weight, you still need those nutrients. Don’t think you’re doing your body any favors by just eating smaller amounts of fat all day.</p>

<p>Make sure you’re eating healthy meals that are actually nutritious. If fries are in your diet every day or even just a few times a week, cut them out. Don’t eat ice cream or desserts too often. Instead try low-fat yogurt or fruit for dessert. Dinner rolls also add a lot of unnecessary calories.</p>

<p>Especially watch what you eat for breakfast. It might seem harmless, but biscuits every morning adds up. Same with bacon and sausage. Of course they’re okay every now and then, but colleges don’t really do us any favors by offering them every morning. </p>

<p>Also what are you drinking? Any sodas or coffee drinks? These can also be loaded with calories that are just really unnecessary to consume. </p>

<p>Watching what you eat really isn’t that hard. Like I said, college is the best time to try to lose weight- it’s your decision on what you eat and hey, you get a free gym too!</p>

<p>Don’t feel bad because, like I said, you have complete control over what you’re eating for all meals now. It’s too easy to fix a plate of bacon, biscuits, and gravy every morning and eat burgers and fries for every lunch. Colleges especially don’t help out when they start requiring things like unlimited meal plans that make us think we can, and should, eat just all the time. </p>

<p>Just start watching what you eat, but take it easy and don’t go too crazy with it.</p>

9

<p>Thanks for all the responses. I definitely think I need to add some cardio…I was thinking a stationary bike for 30 minutes three times a week would help? </p>

<p>In terms of ordering in and pigging out in dining hall, I honestly have been pretty good. Yes, I occasionally eat pizza or ice cream, but generally I always get a meat, salad, fruit, and a carb. I know some people think that eating meats and carbs every meal is not good for you, but I am careful to keep them in moderation. Snacking might be the culprit though because the food is so close to me now in my dorm room, I just grab a handful often. </p>

<p>Pea, I hope the scale is exaggerating, but I read somewhere that fifteen pounds is about what it takes for clothes to no longer fit and my jeans are definitely not. :frowning: I guess the biggest thing for me is I am feeling down which makes it hard for me to get motivated.</p>

10

<p>I would advise this as a hierarchy, as calorie-counting can be impractical absent of nutritional facts:</p>

<p>Ideal: Unprocessed protein (e.g. lean and cooked meats), raw fruits and vegetables
Non-ideal: processed fruits, casseroles, etc.
Ill-advised: deserts, breads, pastas, etc.</p>

<p>Carbohydrates including breads and sugars tend to have a detrimental effect upon metabolism and have virtually no nutritional value. Naturally-occurring carbohydrates in fruits are more advisable on account that sucrose is less likely to be stored as fat.</p>

11

<p>I gained like 40lbs in my first two years. Part of it was a bit of normal college weight gain, the other part was that I’d developed hypothyroidism, so it wasn’t TOTALLY my fault but it was very distressing. You’re not alone, it happens. But you know, my bathroom scale is very different from the one at the doctor by about 5-7lbs, so it might not be as bad as you think. I am losing weight now and after about 8lbs my pants started getting too big.</p>

<p>For me, the big thing was snacking and liquid calories. I drank a LOT of juice, which you would think would be okay but it was a lot of sugar, and I ate when I was bored-- plus I didn’t go to the cafeteria for full meals three times a day so I was never fully satisfied and would snack to compensate. I ate extremely healthy for meals but didn’t take enough care to make sure that whatever it was wasn’t going to make me feel like I’d missed out later-- I’d eat enough to be full but mentally wouldn’t feel like I’d had enough, if that makes sense? So I’d snack. Paying more attention to getting adequate meals and not snacking when I was bored anymore has really been helping. Actually I learned to crochet so when I get that antsy “i am bored and i want to eat something” feeling, I do that to distract me. lol. I also added a pilates routine a few times a week, I have a dvd and I just do it in my room after class to refresh before I go study. </p>

<p>You’ll get there. I promise you, 15lbs isn’t that much. There is a lot of stigma attached to weight gain, but EVERYBODY’s weight fluctuates at some point in their life and it’s okay that this happened to you. Just focus on being healthy and you’ll get the body you want back.</p>

12

<p>Also remember that your weight measured in the doctor’s office while you are fully dressed is going to be higher than your weight on your scale at home. The best test is how your clothes are fitting, and it sounds like you are ready for some adjustments.
For me, it was the “fourth meal” of dorm life that had to get eliminated. At home, I had three healthy meals per day and no weight issue. In the dorm, there was a tempting junky choice at all three meals and other people in the dorm ate snacks late at night.</p>

<p>cross-posted with Emaheevul…we are twins!</p>

13

<p>The ‘fourth meal’ could be a signal that the body is not getting proper nutrition. I would advise an apple, also known as ‘nature’s gut grenade’.</p>

14

<p>Exercise. Simple as that. Yoga is a joke as far as cardio goes.</p>

15

<p>I’m really terrified of getting a freshmen 40 when I go to college…
I live in Europe and the food is just a lot less fatty and sugary. On top of that I come from a family that eats really healthy and homemade meals every day. I do know what to eat, but I’m afraid of the cafeteria food ^^. When I peaked into the dining halls on my campus tours, it seemed like there were burgers, pizza, hot dogs, sandwiches and just a tiny salad bar. That’s one of the reasons why I plan on living off-campus after my freshmen year, because I really want to be able to cook for myself.</p>

16

<p>Eat less, exercise more, that’s all there is to it.</p>

<p>It’s not as bad as when I gained tons of weight between junior year of high school and, well, now. My metabolism basically took a nosedive :|</p>

17

<p>Yoga won’t help you lose weight… do some aerobic form of exercise, run, sports, something. Also eat healthy, mainly lower carbs and have more protein, no pizzas or doughnuts anymore. Also don’t binge drink everyday because each unit of alcohol has around 100 calories (so if you have 4 beers that’s 500kcal already), also it messes with hormone levels etc.</p>

18

<p>i should weigh myself sometime. i havent weighed myself since i left about a month ago</p>

<p>of course, i desperately needed the freshman 15. hell, i wanted to gain 20-25 pounds my first year so i could be up to a normal weight for a small-framed person.</p>

<p>but knowing my metabolism, even though iv been eating 1500-2000 calories every day, i probably havent gained a pound and will still be a small underweight little ****</p>

19

<p>well considering the average person our age burns like 2200 calories a day, of course you haven’t.</p>

20

<p>I would advise focusing more upon diet than exercise; calories burned through exercise compared to dietary intake is relatively small for most people. That is not to say to neglect exercise as it affects metabolism and the immune system, but in terms of weight, diet is the low-hanging fruit.</p>