<p>@Descuff you just have to estimate. And you can always look online. There are tons of websites with calorie info for almost any food.</p>
<p>My school is known for its bike culture, plus the campus is huge. I didn’t bike around much due to issues with my bike, but I ended up walking a few miles each day between getting around campus and going to and from my dorm. That was enough to keep weight gain to a minimum.</p>
<p>1a. avoid dining hall meal plans if you can. Look out for “dining dollars” or no meal plan at all, and just go grocery shopping for lots of healthy food. If you can do this, keep light snacks, fruits, veggies, and meal foods with a lot of protein and not too much fat. No junk, pastries, candy, or soda. They can get addictive if you keep them around. Typically if I’m craving something sweet or salty I’ll end up eating oatmeal or rice cakes instead of junk food because it’s all I let myself buy when I’m grocery shopping. Or I’ll go out and get a single serving of something. Sweets are good in moderation but don’t invite them into your pantry. </p>
<p>1b. IF your only option freshman year is the dining hall, tell yourself you can only eat pizza on friday nights, and only eat ice cream on saturdays. Get fruit instead of fries for your side dish. Otherwise you’ll end up eating those three things every day, I’m not even kidding.</p>
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<li><p>If you can fit in a unit of physical education, it’s worth it to have a scheduled exercise time. If not, go to the gym a few times a week and stay there for at least an hour. If you prefer to space it out, try a half hour 3-4 times a week.</p></li>
<li><p>Walk to class. Walk. To. Class. Take the long way. Take the stairs. </p></li>
<li><p>Don’t make excuses for yourself during exam times. You don’t need 5 servings of coke + snickers bar to get you through a cram session. Drink some hot tea & and eat an apple or something.</p></li>
<li><p>Don’t start smoking weed. If you already do, try to cut down a little. The people I know who gained the most weight freshman year were stoners with the munchies. Some of them gained like 40 pounds. Same goes for alcohol but to a lesser extent. Have a few drinks if you want, but don’t “rage” too often or the calories will add up big time.</p></li>
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<p>Um no you have to over eat 500 calories a day, 7 days a week (3500 calories) to gain one pound, which is practically equivalent to an extra meal a day (or fast food). My self for example am a 5’9 female, 135lbs exercise 5 days a week and eat about 1900 (net) calories a day to maintain my weight. I’d have to eat 2400 calories a day every day of the week to gain a pound (with no exercise). Just be mindful of what you’re eating, since dining commons are often buffet style try limiting yourself to one plate per meal, exercise regularly (you can start out 3 days a week, for 30 minutes) and you should be fine.</p>
<p>Any healthy food options for someone whose residence does not have a stove? i.e. I really only have the options to eat out at restaurants or microwavable food.</p>
<p>Oh and visit your dinning common’s website. My school actually has the menus for each dinning common up for the week, and has a calorie calculator. You select what items you ate (everything in the commons is portioned out into one serving) and it shows you your calorie intake for that meal. My school is pretty health conscious though, but still your school may have a similar option</p>
<p>I’m sure you can find some health(ier) items where you end up going for your food. Its just a matter of looking beyond what you would initially gravitate toward. Convenience store for granola bars and water and stuff too.</p>
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<p>That’s if you were gaining 1 pound a week. I gained 30 pounds over the course of two years. I only gained 1 pound every 3-4 weeks, and overate by 3500 calories during that period of time.</p>
<p>In any case, even overeating by 500 calories a day is not too crazy if you’re eating really calorie dense foods, or drinking your calories through alcohol. My point was just that you gain weight without constantly stuffing your face with food.</p>
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<p>I think this is a great suggestion. It gives you a scheduled time to get to the gym at least a couple of times a week. At a lot of schools these are zero or very small credit classes – sometimes they are required for graduation. But why not take advantage of them to help discipline yourself to exercise? You might try some new sports or activities you wouldn’t have done otherwise, too.</p>