<p>Back for break and I gained 8 pounds. I know it's from drinking and not eating like I used to at home, but I am feeling so discouraged. How do I still have fun at college and get back to my regular weight?</p>
<p>Focus on having fun by doing things that don’t revolve around eating and drinking. Make the people and the activity the focus. See what the gym at school offers. My D discovered zumba duing her first semester at college! </p>
<p>The reality is that you now have to give yourself parameters about food and alcohol and actually watch what you consume. I’m sure you’re not the only college student who now has to do this.</p>
<p>I’m keeping in mind that you still also want to have fun. Nothing wrong with fun.</p>
<p>My elder son’s tip from freshman year: When you first arrive a party, fill up a red cup with tapwater, carry it around and enjoy. People will be less likely to put alcohol into your hands if they think you’re already occupied. </p>
<p>Have a plan for where you want to be (a different activity, not a party) so you leave the party early. In his case, he had a theater rehearsal most weekday evenings, so left the weekday parties after an hour. He was looking forward equally to his next activity which required concentration, so knew he couldn’t show up in an altered state. It became an internal discipline but it was all fun (for him) because he loved the next activity and the people there as much as the party. Still, he wanted to see the friends and say “hi” to all, which he did. Once he returned later to the same party and found them to be so smashed it never attracted him to return to these parties in late hours.</p>
<p>Some activities are most active on weekend evenings. Theater performances, concerts, a cappella singing, comedy improv troupes and such take up a lot of the weekend times by performing – when partying/drinking is heaviest elsewhere on campus. Do you have any interest in performing arts, or helping backstage (costumes, props, lighting etc) ? Pick a club or activity that goes into full-gear (sober) on Friday and Saturday nights to occupy that social time.</p>
<p>I’ll tell you what I’m telling my own freshman daughter, exercise!! Join a dance class, go running, head to the gym. Also, cut out soft drinks (the unlimited soda fountain at the cafeteria is tempting). And cut out the late night dorm eating. It ain’t easy, but it is creating a lifestyle that will last you forever.</p>
<p>Drinking is just empty calories. 7kcals/gram of alcohol that gives you no benefit other than to screw with your mind.</p>
<p>Just hit the gym for an hour a day (preferably first thing in the morning - working out in a fasted stated oxidizes proportionally more fat than in a non-fasting state) and you’ll be fine. Maybe throw in workouts 2x day like me if you want.</p>
<p>Try and make sure you don’t gain more. it is so very hard to lose once you gain it. My daughter has put on a considerable amount of weight since freshman year. She does drink a lot of soda and also juice - both are just empty calories. On some show I was watching the other day (Dr Oz maybe) they were saying that one soda a day adds up to enough empty calories in a year to put on about 20 pounds.</p>
<p>So yes cut out soda and juice, exercise. And watch portion sizes. try keeping a food journal. You may be surprised, even shocked. I did a nutrition class at a local CC and the basketball coach was talking about one of their players having weight issues and couldn’t understand why. The coach finally had him write down everything he was eating for a few days. Late night visits to subway and eating 2 (yes 2!!!) footlong subs late at night turned out to be the culprit. I guess all those TV adds about losing weight eating at subways gave him a false sense of reality!</p>
<p>Try and do something about it now. Easier to lose 8 pounds than 16 or 24 or 32 or more!! Then it becomes quite overwhelming. At least ou are aware of it and thinking about trying to deal with it. Good luck. It is difficult, I know.</p>
<p>I remember reading a story about some research on this subject within the last several months, I think in the NY Times, and the single biggest culprit was late-night eating. Someone did a study about the freshman 15 and found that a surprising number of girls did not gain weight. (An obsessive girl did her own study in my freshman dorm back in the '70s and found that 78 of the 80 girls in the building gained at least 10 pounds freshman year.) </p>
<p>Anyway, the girls who stuck to a normal meal pattern and did not join in the midnight pizza/snacking were the ones who stayed stable. That was a bigger predictor than drinking or what was chosen in the cafeteria.</p>
<p>I’d be surprised if dorm food wasn’t a bigger contributor than drinking. Soda pop dispensers, large glasses, salty/fatty foods, warm cookies and plates of dessert, and the temptation to take a full meal every time you visit the cafeteria, particularly given the cost of each cafeteria meal, which can easily come to $9 or $10. </p>
<p>Exercise can help, but choosing smaller portions, being more selective about your food choices (I see young women making beautiful salads and then loading them down with a solid quarter cup of ranch or thousand island dressing), and skipping most of the desserts will take you a long way. Having some reasonably enjoyable but healthy snack food in your dorm room is also necessary. You’re not going to feel great snacking on a handful of baby carrots when everyone else in downing Cheetos, but perhaps you could visit a grocery store and get a bag of those California Cutie clementines when you go back, or some jerky, or even something like tootsie roll pops which take a while to eat.</p>
<p>Cut out the sodas in the dining hall. If you want to drink alcohol at parties - try drinking water every other drink. It will keep you hydrated and will make you less likely to overdo it. Try to make late night snacks healthier. And yes, get exercise.</p>
<p>I truly think soda is a big contributor. Ds said he had soda with lunch and dinner – we never have it in our house – and he gained 7.5 pounds this first trimester. He hasn’t had any since he’s been home so maybe we can reverse the trend.</p>
<p>Agree with all the advice to give up sodas and juice. </p>
<p>Walk everywhere you can. Take the stairs. Be aware what you eat Sunday night - Friday afternoons. Enjoy you weekends. </p>
<p>H just dropped 10lbs by keeping a food diary on his iPad (A great reason to buy one!) Everynight, he looked at me and said “ok, I have ??? calories left for the day, what can I have for dinner?”</p>
<p>My biggest issue is that I stay up most of the night working, which not only hurts metabolism but if I am awake until 6am I need another meal in between dinner and bed, I end up having another dinner at 3am.</p>
<p>I make it a point to do a quick 30 minute or so cardio workout a couple times a week and I do pilates. I try to walk everywhere I go, and take the long way when it’s not freezing. Making it a point to stop snacking and watching my liquid calories (for me, I was drinking too much juice) was enough to make me lose 11lbs by itself before I even started my workout routine or changed my eating.</p>
<p>Take some of the advice above and do whatever you can to avoid more weight gain before it becomes an insurmountable problem.
Just saw my neighbor’s D who is home for Christmas. She is a college senior this yr.
I would say she has gained at least 25 pounds (prob. more) since starting college.
Her big addiction is Starbucks plus junk food. She was a size 10-12 when she left for college and is a size 16 now.</p>
<p>^^Are you my neighbor? Sounds a lot like my daughter except for the starbucks (she does not drink coffee).</p>
<p>lol,I don’t think so swimcatsmom. The neighbor/mom is a good friend of mine who struggles with weight issues herself and hates that her D is headed down that same road but finds the weight issue a very sensitive topic so avoids it rather than hurt her D’s feelings.</p>
<p>God, sounds like my doppleganger. I don’t dare raise the subject. The one time I did (because I was very worried as the doctor had told her she was already showing the early signs of insulin resistance - her dad has type 2 diabetes and it runs in his side of the family) it resulted in an extremely unpleasant scene.</p>
<p>Is this a girls-only issue? My guys came back looking incredibly thin. His size 29-waist pants looked like he should have gotten a 26-waist.</p>
<p>Swimcatsmom…Yes, my friend says her D feels badly about the weight gain and is not happy with her appearance but doesn’t seem to be doing much about it and dissolves into tears if it’s brought up in conversation. So they mostly don’t bring it up.</p>
<p>limabeans, Never noticed any weight change in S1. He’s a runner/weight lifter and eats a very healthy diet.
S2, a former h.s football lineman, likes fast food/junk food and was at his highest weight ever when he left for college.<br>
We were pleasantly surprised when he came home after the first sem. and had lost 10-15 lbs.<br>
Turns out sleeping was more important to him than eating so he mostly ate just two meals a day and got lots of exercise walking back and forth to classes at his big state u. He’s a jr. now and is down 20 lbs. since he started college.</p>
<p>DS filled out 12 lbs, 1st semester. Lost it 2nd semester when DW supplied him with healthy breakfast fruitcake bars. </p>
<p>He’s been jogging, skiing, and is losing weight to close to his HS size. </p>
<p>BTW
This parent is notating CC parents with D, for DS: working engineer ME/CS, outdoorsy and artistic. Zero debt.
:)</p>
<p>limabeans: I think it’s just how individual people are made. My son is skinny has never carried any surplus weight (believe me, an exception in our family). When he was a kid I used to worry because he was so thin but the doctor said he was perfectly healthy so not to worry about it. He is over 6 ft tall and finds it hard to maintain 155lbs (as in hard to stay as high as 155). He is not a “foodie” at all. Definitely one who eats to live not lives to eat. If we go to a restaurant he will have them hold all the sides and just a piece of steak and some bread. Not a candy or desert eater. Drinks way too much caffeinated soda but is as healthy as a horse. If I even drank 1/5th of the soda he does, I would be a house rather than a horse.</p>
<p>And I have a friend whose daughter eats enormous amounts of food. We will go out to eat and she will clean her plate, nibble off ours, and hour later she is hungry again and asking when supper is (while we are all still feeling stuffed). She is tall and skinny but has had high cholesterol since her early teens. I keep thinking she will wake up one morning weighing 300 pounds. I would weigh that if i ate half what she does.</p>