Avoiding the Freshman 15?

<p>Does anyone have any advice? I'm a little worried. I'm a healthy weight right now, but I'm worried about going over, especially since my fall schedule's a little weird and my mealtimes will be erratic.</p>

<p>lol not everyone gets the so called freshman 15. Stick to healthy things and you’ll be fine.</p>

<p>Drinking is also a big source of the extra weight. If you don’t want to not drink, go for clear liquors (think vodka) with diet soda as a mixer if you’d like one.</p>

<p>From a previous post of mine on another thread:</p>

<p>Does the walking help you lose weight a lot?
Honestly, not really. It does help your endurance, I suppose, but not if you have an average metabolism.</p>

<p>Do a lot of people become lazy or do they take advantage of athletic facilities?
That really depends on how well you can keep yourself motivated. </p>

<p>Do you get hungry often at first on the meal plan?
Personally, I scheduled my courses to only give me enough time to grab a quick bite (about 20 minutes) for lunch, then ate dinner after all of my classes. It’s all about controlling how much and how often you eat.</p>

<p>Do you like college food and is there any healthy stuff?
I honestly don’t know the definition of “college food”. My school serves nearly everything. </p>

<p>Do most people lose or gain weight?
If I had to guess, I’d say most gain weight due to poor time management and willpower to reduce their intake or work out.</p>

<p>Has anyone ever become malnutritioned in college because of the change?
I have not. I eat better at school than I ever did at home (more amounts, healthier food). In high school, about half of the time that I donated blood my iron level was dangerously low. While in school, my iron is always at a healthy level. </p>

<p>What are your experiences with weight in college…?
Being completely honest, during the lazier semester (summer), I gained a few pounds due to, well, being lazy. In the fall, I got in the mindset of working out at least once a week. Just 30 minutes on the treadmill per week can keep you balanced. It’s all about keeping yourself motivated. </p>

<p>If you really want to avoid gaining weight in college, here are some tips that have worked for me and for my friends as well:

  • Keep your mind open to new foods. Instead of eating pizza and french fries every day, try the healthier options.
  • Stop drinking soda. When I stopped drinking soda, I lost three pounds in a matter of less than a week. I felt fantastic, like I had gotten rid of a poison in my body. I haven’t had it since. Fruit juices are so much healthier and tastier. Besides, soda along with your meal makes you full much faster, so you’ll be hungry again earlier than you should be.
  • Do at least 30 minutes of cardiovascular exercise per week. That was my amount of exercise, but it varies per person. And walking doesn’t count. Do some running, get on the elliptical, go biking, or swim. Swimming is a great cardio and muscle-toning exercise.
  • Try to spend the least amount of time sitting down / laying down possible. Always be doing something. Go visit a friend. Walk around campus with friends. Wonder around the town. Go on adventures. Don’t waste your college life sitting in front of the TV / computer.</p>

<p>Turpentine works wonders</p>

<p>What I’ve heard is, stock up on healthy snacks - granola, crackers, etc. Don’t fill your room with chocolate and bags of chips because you’ll end up eating ALL of it and then some more.</p>

<p>The trick to keeping maintaining or losing weight is diet. Exercise helps, but diet is about 95% of the matter. As far as diet goes, eat as much vegetables as you want, fruit from time to time, and a fair amount of protein rich foods. Avoid sugars and processed carbs. You dont necessarily have keep a low carb diet, oats, sweet potatoes, essentially low GI foods are good. Sugars (espeically fructose) are almost entirely converted into body fat, while fats and proteins are mot generally stored as fat.</p>

<p>If you have time:
<a href=“Sugar: THE BITTER TRUTH - YouTube”>Sugar: THE BITTER TRUTH - YouTube;

<p>Actually, it’s mostly about the drinking. Think about a beer: it normally has 150 calories, and if you drink three a night two nights per weekend, that’s 750 extra calories per weekend. Then think of all the drunk food you consume…that’s why people gain so much weight.</p>

<p>The unhealthy choices available kill a gut too, but when you’re eating pizza three times a day, eventually you’ll start to think something is up. It’s easier to recognize than drinking.</p>

<p>Don’t worry about beer weight, you can always watch your diet when you are old.</p>

<p>

30 minutes of exercise per week? A good jog/run should last 20-30 minutes. Maybe 30 minutes of cardiovascular exercise every day or every other day. You can always spare 30 minutes.</p>

<p>Lift at the gym hard and make that freshman 15 all muscle! lol</p>

<p>As mentioned above, not everybody gets the freshman 15. If it’s a big concern, doing cardio and resistance exercises. Lifting weights isn’t necessarily needed. Throughout the day do sets of push-ups and sit-ups and it will gradually get easier, not to mention burn a lot of fat.</p>

<p>The easiest way to lose weight is to stop drinking calories. Don’t drink soda. The poster a few posts above me is wrong: don’t drink fruit juice either, it is just as sugary as soda but with a few vitamins. If you must drink alcohol, avoid beer and drink liquor.</p>

<p>I said fruit juice because most people can’t go by with drinking just water.</p>

<p>Diet soda and other zero calorie things are better alternatives to sugary soda than fruit juice. Club soda is pretty tasty. </p>

<p>Plain water is pretty good too though. It is amazing to me that some people can’t just drink water. I can just picture those people wandering in a desert for days and then just when they are about to die of thirst, they stumble upon an oasis but then turn up their noses when they find out that the water doesn’t have bubbles in it and isn’t lemon-flavored. It’s absurd. People have been enjoying and drinking plain water for bazillions of years.</p>

<p>I used to be like that (i would drink tea instead), then i got really sick and forced myself to change to water.</p>

<p>Watch what you eat for breakfast and lunch. A lot of dining halls serve buffet style and you’ll probably have more options than ever before. I used to see a lot of people go to breakfast and get cereal, eggs, bacon- everything on the buffet. Then at lunch they’d get a cheeseburger, fries, and ice cream. Then they’d eat a full course meal at dinner too. And usually people were just drinking soda with all their meals too. Just because all that food’s there doesn’t mean that you have to eat all of it. Try not to change your eating habits too much- just stick with the basics for breakfast and then just a sandwich and salad or something like that for lunch. Try to find something healthy for dinner, however tempting the nacho bar might be. Don’t skip meals, because this isn’t healthy either, just don’t go crazy at each one.</p>

<p>And I agree on eating healthy snacks in the dorm. I know if I had a candy bowl sitting there I would just eat out of it all the time, for no reason at all. So I just don’t keep those foods around. Personally I don’t have a problem with drinking diet soda, but I always make sure I drink plenty of water too. </p>

<p>Also, be careful with the coffee drinks! Maybe the best coffee stand on campus is right on the way to your first class but that doesn’t mean you need that 300 calorie drink every morning!</p>

<p>There’s nothing wrong with coffee itself. Plain coffee has pretty much zero calories. Just don’t go to a coffee place and do this:</p>

<p>[‪How</a> To Order A Latte‬‏ - YouTube](<a href=“How To Order A Latte - YouTube”>How To Order A Latte - YouTube)</p>

<p>Eat right, its not hard.</p>

<p>Don’t drink pop with every meal.</p>

<p>Don’t drink alcohol, beer</p>

<p>Stay active</p>

<p>Etc.</p>

<p>Hell I lost 30 pounds my first semester and I wasn’t overweight to begin with. I was able to put it back on mostly by the end of the year though. But I didn’t eat enough fir his active I was</p>

<p>get braces.</p>