Eating right in college?? Is it possible?

rollingplaza

So I started college the past year. To be honest I wasn't thin to begin with, but I've definitely gained weight the first semester. The problem is that I don't just get good food. The mess food is terrible, and I live in a dorm so I haven't got a fridge. I mostly survive on junk and packaged foods and it makes me so disgusted. I can't stop eating once I start.
I've finally decided to stop this and start eating right again. But I don't even know if that's possible. Any suggestions?

kommodevaran

How terrible can it be? Isn't the food supposed to fuel your bodies and brains? You decide when to stop eating. And please stop the idea of "eating right", there is no such thing. A healthy diet is just all the nutrition you need, and not too much of anything. No foods are healthy or unhealthy, you can get what you need through a variety of foods you like.

Ssg25

College student here- for non refrigerated food I eat oatmeal, granola, almonds/walnuts, whole grain crackers, nut butters, popcorn, instant brown rice, granola bars, tuna, whole grain bread, canned soup. Stock up on fruit from the dining hall. See if your dining hall posts nutritional info and try to fill up on protein and veggies when you’re there. It’s hard with free food and pizza constantly on campus, but let yourself eat some of the things you enjoy in moderation so you don’t feel deprived and end up binging. Just make sure you stay in your calories

DebLaBounty

Fill up on salads and veggies from the mess hall. Grab an apple or a banana on the way out the door.

mitch16

Are there not salad bars and sandwich bars anymore? You can make very sensible eating choices from those. Yogurt? Cottage Cheese? Those on the things that I survived on when I was in college.

I think the biggest thing is to avoid the temptation of "all you can eat"... Take a sensible portion. Don't eat dessert at every meal/every day. Walk as much as you can around campus.

GlorianasTears

I never went to college so I never gained weight so I can't relate but I'm sure if you are persistent and avoid stress then you can lose weight!

Maxxitt

Ssg25 wrote: »

College student here- for non refrigerated food I eat oatmeal, granola, almonds/walnuts, whole grain crackers, nut butters, popcorn, instant brown rice, granola bars, tuna, whole grain bread, canned soup. Stock up on fruit from the dining hall. See if your dining hall posts nutritional info and try to fill up on protein and veggies when you’re there. It’s hard with free food and pizza constantly on campus, but let yourself eat some of the things you enjoy in moderation so you don’t feel deprived and end up binging. Just make sure you stay in your calories

^^this

hroderick

It takes grown up self discipline to both eat right and study right in college. A lot of grown ups don't have it and a lot of college freshmen don't handle their new found freedom responsibly. Be exceptional!

apullum

Not a college student, but I was one for a long time...long enough that I've wound up teaching them

Do you not have a fridge right now, or are you not allowed to have one at all? Many dorms do allow students to have small refrigerators. If that's the case, see if you can split the cost with a roommate, or your school may even rent them.

Are you allowed to have other appliances, like a rice cooker? You can make not only rice, but also oatmeal, steamed veggies, and other things in a rice cooker.

Do you have a microwave?

Do you have a grocery store within walking distance, or transportation to get to a grocery store easily?

Many colleges also post nutritional info online. The food isn't necessarily tasty, but it may be more nutritious and lower-calorie than you'd expect. Look for salads (watch portions of high-fat dressings and toppings), lean meats that are baked/broiled/grilled/etc. (rather than fried), veggies that are steamed/grilled/etc. (again, rather than fried), lowfat/nonfat yogurt, soups that aren't cream-based, fresh fruit...all of those things are pretty common in cafeterias.

Try to drink water and other low or no-calorie drinks rather than using your calories on sweet drinks.

Things you probably want to eat in moderation are unfortunately really common on campus: pizza, sweets, sugary soda, fried food. You don't have to cut those things out of your diet completely, but you will probably have trouble meeting your calorie goals if you eat them often. We had a LOT of fast food on campus and we ate a LOT of it in my first year.

Things that you can keep in your room that don't need refrigeration: shelf-stable boxes of milk or nondairy milk, cereal, some fruits, protein bars, protein powder (mix with water or your shelf-stable milk), peanut butter or PB2, shelf-stable silken tofu (throw it in a smoothie), tuna, bread, nuts, single serving containers of applesauce or fruit packed in water, little single-serving chocolates if you have a sweet tooth.

If you have a microwave, you can cook potatoes or spaghetti squash, heat up canned soups, make mug cakes, pop popcorn, instant oatmeal, even cook pasta and eat it with a jarred sauce (https://www.thespruce.com/spaghetti-in-the-microwave-481882).

Gosh, this all sounds much better than I ate in college

rollingplaza

Okay so it seems quite possible to eat right than I thought

rollingplaza

Thank you everyone for the suggestions. I typed a little response but it didn't post for some reason. I will probably start going to the gym if I get time, and cycle and walk around campus more. Determined face on

mamamoobyul

Maybe you can save up for a little mini fridge and keep healthy things in there. You can also try meal prepping food for 3/4 days and then just reheat and eat

jb050794

rollingplaza wrote: »

Thank you everyone for the suggestions. I typed a little response but it didn't post for some reason. I will probably start going to the gym if I get time, and cycle and walk around campus more. Determined face on

Please take advantage of the college gym! I was skinny my first 2 years of college. I didn't really watch what I ate, but I biked a lot, walked around campus and went to the gym occasionally. I had a car the last 2 years and I think that made me lazy I stopped biking, ate out more after moving out of the dorms. I gained about 35lbs my last 2 years of college. Trying to lose it all now! I would suggest to just be as active as you can with your free time. Hit up the gym with friends, play some ultimate Frisbee, basketball.

coffeebean92

It sounds like you are starting to have some borderline binge eating ): I'm sorry you are going through that. I do not agree with other posters thatf you should eat whatever you want. I think you should find healthy whole foods you love and stick to eating those routinely and have a occasional single serving treat sometimes to help you with the portion control. I am college age as well some foods thatg work for me are lots of green beans, oatmeal, cashew milk, sweet potates (very high in fiber!), blueberries, bananas, soups, lentils, beans, rice, spinach apples etc. If you really are serious about losing weight, I would suggest you look into Dr. Mcdougall. On his program it is low fat vegan whole foods based so you can eat ALOT of volume of food and still lose weight. Good luck try not to get down on yourself you can change (:

janejellyroll

coffeebean92 wrote: »

It sounds like you are starting to have some borderline binge eating ): I'm sorry you are going through that. I do not agree with other posters thatf you should eat whatever you want. I think you should find healthy whole foods you love and stick to eating those routinely and have a occasional single serving treat sometimes to help you with the portion control. I am college age as well some foods thatg work for me are lots of green beans, oatmeal, cashew milk, sweet potates (very high in fiber!), blueberries, bananas, soups, lentils, beans, rice, spinach apples etc. If you really are serious about losing weight, I would suggest you look into Dr. Mcdougall. On his program it is low fat vegan whole foods based so you can eat ALOT of volume of food and still lose weight. Good luck try not to get down on yourself you can change (:

While I think it would be great for OP to incorporate some new foods into their diet if they're interested in doing that, I think the recommendation that a busy college student who is overwhelmed by weight loss and doesn't have a fridge switch to the McDougall diet may not be entirely practical.

SaraB_82

My college had both a make your own stir fry station and a salad bar so if you didn't like what was one the menu, you could have alternatives.

grinning_chick

I lived in the dorms when I was 20 for the entire first year after transferring to a really remote and rural land grant institution from a major city's university.

I lost the Freshman15™ vs. gained it because I prioritized sleep over the limited hours of the cafeteria at this particular college. Plus the prepared hot meals offered there were nearly uniformly unpalatable to me so I ate a lot of "build your own" deli sandwiches and salads that year when I did make it for supper (I had a lot of evening labs that interfered with being able to). Didn't have a dorm fridge, either. There was a microwave in the community room but it was halfway across the building and, frankly, that was entirely too far to bother with more often than not. And the perma-burnt-microwave-popcorn stench permeating that microwave's plastic components could rapidly kill anything but the strongest of hungers.

Being poor and not working so I could concentrate on establishing a solid GPA foundation there prevented buying a lot of outside (grocery store) food. So I ate a lot of vending machine sized and quality "meals" for breakfast and lunch (e.g., a 2-pack of Twinkies and a Hawaiian Punch, a two servings sized bag of Cheetos and a Dr. Pepper) between lectures/labs instead. I did smoke, so I did have a slight metabolic advantage due to that. The only exercise I got was walking to/back from classes that were a max of a 10-15 minute walk. Any further and I drove to them. I usually hung out/studied at the student union building or library or computer lab between classes if there were gaps in my schedule vs. walking all the way back to the dorms.

My point for sharing all that is you can indeed eat horrible and still lose weight in college. It's not the quality nor the macros in the food but the caloric content of what is consumed that determines whether weight loss or gain happens. If you are gaining weight, you are eating more calories than what you need for maintenance. Regardless of where those calories are coming from. Start logging and tracking as accurately as you can. Buy a scale. Start weighing everything that goes into your mouth and down your gullet. Make sure you use the nutritional information labels in hand vs. entries online.