Campus Food Frustrations

kdoodlethug

I live on-campus at my college and am required to have a meal plan. Room and board is provided for me as an RA, so this is really the only option right now.

I am so frustrated with tracking food from my school! Sometimes the nutrition facts provided at dining halls contradicts the information that is on the school website. Other times, the dish is not listed at all- I have to make an educated guess of the most similar item in those cases. Additionally, it is difficult to figure out serving sizes when my food is being made by someone else (but I do my best!).

This is more of a rant than anything. Is anyone else having trouble with this? Or does anyone have advice? I'm stuck with campus food for another year or two so that's not going to change, haha.

futuremanda

Almost never knowing what's in your food is frustrating. I'm in a similar situation and it's tough. Only advice really is to do your best, and practice patience (so you don't drive yourself crazy!).

In 4-6 weeks of logging, take the # of days logged and divide by lbs lost. That's the number of days it is taking you to lose 1 lb. <-- and you may want to take a look after your period, if 4-6 weeks is matching up around that time, or you may have lost more than you think when you're calculating due to water retention.

Basically, proceed for awhile. See how you do. If you're losing more slowly than anticipated, adjust your calorie goal down, move more, or just start expecting to lose at that slower rate.

DawnieB1977

I graduated from university in 2000 (this makes me feel old lol) but I say that if you're consistently losing then your logging is obviously as accurate as it can be.

What sort of things are you eating?

paperandpencil947

I know the feeling! I'm on campus too and I'm managing on keeping my weight steady because of winter, and I find that I think I'm doing okay calorie wise, it's the sodium that kinda throws me for a loop. Thankfully my school just introduced a nutrition tracker for their food and it's been helping me a lot. There are still some kinks though (it claimed 30000 mg of sodium for a chicken strip, uhhhh?) but do you know if your school has anything like that?

If you are still losing weight though despite that, congrats and keep it up!

kdoodlethug

Good ideas guys! I've really only just started this month and don't have regular access to a scale so I'll have to wait awhile to see if what I'm doing is working. I'll adjust it as needed when I get a chance.

DawnieB1977

kdoodlethug wrote: »

Good ideas guys! I've really only just started this month and don't have regular access to a scale so I'll have to wait awhile to see if what I'm doing is working. I'll adjust it as needed when I get a chance.

Good luck

Maybe try to stick to things in the dining hall that are easy to log, like chicken breast and veggies. If that's an option of course. I remember portions being pretty small when I was at uni, but I'm English, so we don't tend to have huge portions anyway.

rainandwood93

Hey! In the same boat, I posted last year and got some really good advice here:

http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/1171975/college-dilemma-uncertain-calorie-counts#latest
Feel free to add me

PearlAng

I attended a program at my school where I lived there for 6 weeks over the summer and took classes (I currently commute). This program was somewhat tough workload wise, and we were closely monitored. Everyone ate breakfast, lunch and dinner altogether at the same times each day. We were all required to eat in the dining hall and I was logging pretty accurately throughout the program. We also were allotted very little time for recreation and could only use the gym at specific times, so I had to rely on accurately counting or giving really close estimates for food. I know I stuck with basic foods that were easy to log. My campus used Sodexo, but like you, I found that there were some differences between tags on the food and the counts for the database.

Instead of premade sandwiches, for example, id use the sandwich station in the dining hall. It was easier (though more tedious) to log 2 slices of rye + whatever else separately. Good luck

LovelyIvy466

Ugh, a revolting dining hall is the reason I gained weight in college. I ended up eating pizza, fried donuts, and assorted unhealthy things instead. I don't have meaningful advice, just wanted to say I feel your pain and wish you good luck!

RodaRose

Trust the nutritional info from the cafe over the information on the school's website. School web sites are notoriously filled with errors.

kdoodlethug

Instead of premade sandwiches, for example, id use the sandwich station in the dining hall. It was easier (though more tedious) to log 2 slices of rye + whatever else separately. Good luck [/quote]

Unfortunately just about the only make-it-yourself food we have is salad. I like salad but not enough to eat it for every meal, haha. We have sandwiches too, but they're across campus (far from my classes) and the workers usually mess up the order, so I don't like to go very often. I wish the portions were at least more uniform, ugh.

kdoodlethug

RodaRose wrote: »

Trust the nutritional info from the cafe over the information on the school's website. School web sites are notoriously filled with errors.

Really? Is there any reason to believe the cafe info is not going to be full of errors? I'm not being sassy, that's a serious question.

DawnieB1977

LovelyIvy466 wrote: »

Ugh, a revolting dining hall is the reason I gained weight in college. I ended up eating pizza, fried donuts, and assorted unhealthy things instead. I don't have meaningful advice, just wanted to say I feel your pain and wish you good luck!

Lol this is the reason I lost weight at university. I don't think the food was too was really. I think I just mainly ate salad and jacket potatoes. My friend used to sometimes make us pasta instead on her hot plate. Luckily in my 2nd year I lived off campus in a shared house with friends, so had a kitchen. My third year I spent in France and had a hob and a fridge, and my final year I lived in halls but had a shared kitchen with a fridge and microwave. Lots of salads! I finished my 4 year degree a lot thinner than I started

RodaRose

kdoodlethug wrote: »

RodaRose wrote: »

Trust the nutritional info from the cafe over the information on the school's website. School web sites are notoriously filled with errors.

Really? Is there any reason to believe the cafe info is not going to be full of errors? I'm not being sassy, that's a serious question.

I am totally serious. The web team lives in their own tech world whereas the cafe is responsible to whomever wrote their contract to serve and charge for food on your campus. (At my school, the web site was a huge mess.) If this nutritional information and your need for more options is important to you, contact the various entities that can help you: the manager of food services, dean of students, student government, vice president of student affairs/student life, student government and whoever seems to be in charge.