So I guess I should of seen this coming, but since the school year began in August, I’ve gained about 30 pounds of fat mostly. I was lean and muscular throughout high school and played football and lacrosse, my metabolism has never been fast and it runs in my family. Once my older brother quit playing football 4 years ago he gained about 50lbs of fat in the course of a few months. I still have my eating habits from my more active football days but since I’m not playing any sports in college, I’m not exercising nearly as much. I’m worried that my appetite combined with my slow metabolism and lack of constant activity will cause me to gain much more weight throughout the year. Many of my new friends here have big appetites and my huge meal plan lets me any time I want to. When I arrived here in August I was 6’2" and 190lbs, I now weigh 224lbs and none of my jeans fit me. How can I stop gaining weight?
There’s only one way to stop gaining. Watch calories, increase exercise.
Become aware of hidden sugar. If you cut your sugar intake in half, you will see dramatic results especially at your age.
Cut out bread completely unless it is all natural with no sugar. This means white bread, sub rolls, dinner rolls etc. You can drop 10lbs. fast by doing this. Cut out all white pasta. Again, it’s a sugar. Try to cut out anything processed. If it can sit on a shelf - avoid it. Chips, crackers, etc. Stop all soda and juices. Learn to love water. Add lemon or lime if you need flavor. I don’t need to tel you about deserts - moderation. You are probably drinking beer - cut down. Avoid those late evening/late night meals/snacks. Choose eggs or other proteins for breakfast - don’t allow pancakes, waffles, bagels for breakfast (avoid the carbs = sugar). If you drink coffee stop putting sugar in it.
You are very smart to become aware of this quickly. You can turn this around.
Pick up a sport that you can play the rest of your life. Big team sports, such as football, are harder to keep playing because of all the overhead of organizing the games. And that doesn’t even consider the injury aspect of football specifically. Something like racquetball would work.
Sports will also provide an opportunity to make friends as well as the exercise.
You need not go crazy with your diet but moderation and being aware of your choices is important.
Ime, young men seem to respond well to low carb"diets". Cut out bread, pasta, white rice, and desserts for a couple of weeks and you are likely to see a difference. While you are doing that, think of it as eating a lot of lean protein, veggies, and fruit (more than focusing on what you are cutting out.) Think of it as trying a new eating regimen rather than deprivation. I suspect that if you feed yourself this way, you’ll feel more energetic as well.
Having some exercise routine may also make you feel like being more healthy when you eat.
Do remember that as you mature, you won’t have your 18 you body - some filling out is normal. I only mention this as your starting point may not be your ideal as you get older. Why not aim for taking off 20 lbs and seeing how you feel and look?
You are smart to think about this now. Managing your food in a healthy way is a learned skill!
First off, 6’2" and 225lbs isn’t huge. 190 is pretty thin! But you don’t want it to get out of hand. My son always added a lot of weight after football and wrestling ended, but dropped it immediately when practices started up. At college, he’s joined a club sport that keeps him busy 2 or 3 nights a week, and he goes to the on campus gym another few days a week. He’s dropped 20 pounds so far this year (his sophomore). He also keeps a gallon jug of water with him and doesn’t drink anything but water during the day.
If there are desserts, soda, beer in your life regularly start with those. White carbs are the best to cut. Seek out high fiber fruits and veggies at each meal.
If getting to the gym is hard, start finding the stairs. Take the scenic route to class. Try to be on your feet moving at least an hour a day. Think about intramural or club sports. Or find a club that gets you active (biking, jogging, hiking).
Congratulations on having this realization now, and being open to asking for help. You can choose options based on what works best for you. Baby Steps or Cold Turkey changes?
Baby Steps could mean you choose one change at a time and focus on incorporating it as habit. Like choosing to drop sodas and juices. You might decide to allow some coffee in the morning and then just drink water the rest of the day. Add real, Fresh lemon or lime to water as needed.
Success with your first healthy Baby Step, whether or not it leads to weight loss, should be celebrated (non-food reward) and give you motivation to choose another Baby Step.
Baby Steps can Include individual exercise, joining intramural or club team, or just walking more around campus instead of taking bus or driving.
Some personalities prefer Cold Turkey, all or nothing changes. I don’t do well with this style, but you are getting some good advice from other posts.
Don’t let failure stop you from moving forward. Eat healthy, move your body, stay positive and include social activities also. Long-term, you will be a healthier person.
Stress over procrastination can lead to an unhealthy body also. Beef up your time management skills regarding study habits, ask for help from professors, find study groups, and learn how to recover from stress in healthy outlets.
Good luck to you!
Following up on many of these comments –
- For sports that you can do instead of the team sports, try running or swimming. Putting in a run before breakfast each morning (or after your classes before dinner) will help you feel relaxed and will keep burning calories. Because muscle burns more fat, try weight lifting 2-3 times per week. And do push-ups every day.
- Try substituting different types of activity for social activities and meetings/ studying. For a few social activities a week, instead of sitting with friends drinking beer and eating pizza (or the equivalent) try throwing a frisbie or fooball outside. Instead of sitting while talking with a partner about a group project, walk together while talking. Instead of reading at your desk (and probably feeling sleepy) take the book to the gym and use an exercise bike.
- Substitute one vegan or vegetarian dinner on Mondays, maybe. Instead of going for the fast-food offerings in the cafeteria, try the fish or lean chicken entrees.
- Lower stress in your life. Stress can lead to more belly fat (I hear . . . . ) So the running/ swimming/ walking and also meditation may help with lowering your stress.
- If you're smoking pot, that can make you eat. Maybe cut that out too, if this is an issue.
After awhile of clean, healthy eating, believe it or not, you will begin to not want junk (processed) foods and carbs. Sodas will start to look “gross” to you once you stop drinking them. It’s true.
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Increase your activity. But figure out what works for you:
Do you like structured activities? Join an intramural team or a exercise class.
Do you like unstructured activities? Get a fit bit and take the long way back to the dorm. Try to get 10000 steps a day.
Maybe go to the gym with someone. -
Decrease your calories. Look online for how many calories someone your size should be eating. try to figure out how many calories you are eating.
Do you drink sugary drinks? Switch to water or sugar free drinks. -
Decrease your carbs
Breakfast: drop the pancakes…try to have Eggs or yogurt and fruit
Avoide potatoes rice bread etc. -
Reduce alcohol
Not sure if you drink or how much, but reduce it.
For most guys, you will lose weight quick if you do this.
You have a lot of good advice here! Especially sugary drinks…that’s one of the easiest, simplest ways to lose weight if you are drinking them.
The only thing I have to add is that “huge appetite” is often caused by WHAT you eat, not some inborn metabolism thing. Sugar and simple carbs (bread, cereal, baked goods) cause an increase in hunger and appetite. If you start limiting these you may see it drop naturally. Another way to combat a big appetite is to start with a salad or soup…your stomach will just fill up, also fill up with veggies (raw or cooked) for a feeling of fullness, and protein will help keep you satisfied longer.
And yes, your body is used to activity so get back in it…lots of great opportunities for exercise in college!
I’m going to piggyback on the ‘low carb’ bandwagon. Cut back on sugar, ‘white carbs’ like bread, pasta, white rice, and beer.
Why does that help? Very simplified explanation as I am not a nutritionist, but your body secretes insulin in response to a meal. Higher carb meal means more insulin secreted and means that your blood sugar spikes higher and then dips, which makes you feel tired and hungry again. A meal that is mostly either protein/fat or slower-digesting carbs like vegetables and brown rice will not spike your blood sugar as quickly and thus you won’t have the dip (and the cravings to snack as much).
If you are a snacker, keep things like nuts (best is unsalted, like a handful of unsalted almonds) around so you aren’t tempted by vending machines and free cookies.
Not to contribute to the delinquency of a minor but wine is lower carb than beer.
Watch out for hidden sugar in things like barbecue sauce, salad dressing, ketchup, yogurt. Mustard, salsa, and hot sauce are better condiments for low carb eating. For salad dressing try vinegar and oil (or just balsamic vinegar without the oil).
Download a food tracking app like MyFitnessPal and track what you eat for a few days. What you will most likely find is you are just overeating and it really has nothing to do with your metabolism. If you take in more calories than you are burning the net effect is you will get fat.
I do low carb but even with that, you still have to watch what you eat in relationship to how much energy you are expending. Get yourself a fitbit or Apple Watch and see how much energy you are expending to really dial in how many calories you need.
I use an Apple Watch so I know that my average resting calorie burn is 1,900 per day so add in my active energy and I’m around 2,300 to 2,400 average daily calorie burn. You’d be surprised how quickly a diet of pizza, crackers, cookies will jump past 2,400 calories. Most people really don’t know how many calories they are taking in. Once I started tracking and measuring I was surprised just how much I was overeating. At my heaviest weight 238 and now I’m down to 188lbs. Changing my diet and doing nothing else I went from 238 down to 215 in no time. I plateaued there and then started exercising and cleaning up my diet more and that’s how I got the results.
I played several sports throughout high school and for a time in college. Once I stopped playing, I gained weight as well. As an elective at my university, I took Circuit & Weight Training class. And that was my key moment in life. No more fast food, significantly reduced alcohol consumption, no more pizzas, no more donuts, cookies, cakes, etc. I became hooked on exercise and eating well.
Eventually, years later, I essentially became “paleo.” Within the past 5 years or so, I became a CrossFitter, but that’s definitely a sport that’s not for everyone. Lastly, back in college, I joined the university’s club/rec leagues for a couple sports, which I still play today.
The other suggestion that I’d make is to get your friends and yourself to signup for a future local obstacle race. Join as a team, train as a team, and then go have fun running through the mud and obstacles. Start with short less difficult one. College kids definitely populate these events when I run them.
Pick up a sport and make some small diet changes. If you drink soda, stop. (This is a good change for the rest of your life). Maybe cut out late night snacks, or eat something different if you have them with buddies. My go to was toasted bagels w cream cheese at the late night grill in our dorm, and it definitely contributed to weight gain, If you can’t cut it out, switch to a different healthier order, or maybe only treat yourself to it once a week.
Consider cutting out carbs from one meal a day. Hard to give them up overall, but I find it isn’t too tough to drop them from one meal.
It helps me to weigh myself every day. If I can lose a pound or two a week, I’m happy. Just keep up your new habits, and you’ll get to where you want to be.
If you do this ^^^try breakfast. It’s easy to chow down on bacon, eggs, and sausage, chances are those choices are always there. You’ll be full, and not start your day with blood sugar swings from a carby breakfast which would cause you to be overhungry at lunch, etc etc.
It’s definitely hard to avoid gaining while eating dining hall food, and even harder to lose. I lost ~20lbs while on the meal plan but it took effort and planning. I did it by limiting my calories, running, lifting, and changing my definition of “healthy” food. Here’s my advice:
- Count your calories! I used MyFitness pal to keep a calorie defecit and it worked! Beware, it tends to overestimate calories burned during exercise. I use it even now that I'm maintaining my weight to make sure I'm eating enough calories and getting enough protein as a runner.
- Cut back on processed food. I agree with the posters before me, processed carbs especially will foil your goals. I cut out bread entirely for a couple months which helped so much. I reintroduced it eventually, but gained a new perspeceive from cutting it out - before, 2-3 slices of toast was typical but now 1 slice is enough bread for the day.
- Try intermittent fasting!! It works wonders for weight loss, muscle gain, and improving your blood glucose and metabolic health. Restrict your food consumption to 8-10 hours per day (or less!) - for example, wait to eat breakfast until 10am and stop eating for the night by 8pm. I would do this by bringing oatmeal to my classes so I could eat it part way into the day. This will also help cut out those late-night junk food sessions. Perhaps the hardest thing I found was avoiding eating junk food late at night. It's really hard to say no when all of your friends get pizza and burgers during late night study sessions or after a night out. Stay strong and you'll see results!
- Start exercising again! You'll feel better and have a larger calorie budget to work with! Weights are your best friend, and cardio helps too. I didn't start lifting until about halfway through my weightloss, but I saw the most physical changes once I did.
- Eat vegetables! For lunch I switched to salads with chicken or deli turkey. You can eat soooo much more volume if you emphasize veggies in your diet than if you eat a lot of processed carbs or too much meat. Just beware the dining hall veggies - I know mine uses a TON of oil to cook theirs, resulting in super high calories, so I stuck to the raw veggies. There's nothing wrong with good fats (I actively try to eat a lot of them now), but they are calorically-dense which can make it easy to overshoot your daily calorie goal.
- If you're drinking, cut down on it or cut it out entirely if possible. Alcohol is very calorie dense and not very satiating. Also, being drunk often leads to getting drunk food with friends. Fun, but will sabatogue your long-term goals.