Any former college athletes having trouble?

molivos

I was a a distance swimmer throughout my life and swam all through college as well, so I never really learned how to eat. Food was fuel and I ate a lot of it. My BMI was always really high since I'm muscular (I was 5'5, 150, with 22% body fat or less) and I just ate when I was hungry for most of my life. In hindsight, I think this saved me from a lot of body image insecurity when I was younger, but it has left me lost now.

I just started dual degree graduate school program this year (classes all day every day on top of 2 night classes a week) and now I have to sit a lot and don't have time to do the workouts I'm used to. I got concerned and bought a scale, so I know that I've gained about 9 pounds since school started in September (I'm now 159). Obviously I'm never going back to the activity levels I had in college with my schedule, so I guess I'm just reaching out to see if other people had similar problems adjusting and how they manage. What are your goals? I think even if I got down to 150, it wouldn't be the same kind of 150 I was used to when I was training all the time. I'm athletic and curvy, so I know I'd look emaciated at 140, but I really just want to get within normal BMI for my height now that I'm not an athlete anymore.

eyouse

Yes, I am completely with you. Swam and played water polo through college and now in graduate school... Sitting a lot. This site is helping me a lot with learning how to eat correctly because food/weight wasn't a concern until I graduated undergrad. If you have any helpful tips for me, let me know! Haha. I can suggest 10 minute yoga stretching sessions for study breaks, I've found if I sit too long I no longer feel good enough to want to exercise so this helps keep me moving

khlesnick

I'm with you! I swam in high school and college (distance also!) and never really thought about limiting food. I love food and I don't think I'm ever really full. Now I'm 2 years into an office job and working really hard just to not gain too much. I'm probably more self-concious than I should be, but I'm just not as fit as I used to be, and I probably never will be again. I'm about 5'8" and right now I'm around 150 lbs. I put on a lot of weight fast after I stopped swimming and then eventually leveled out. I find the difficult thing for me is finding motivation and time to workout. I've done 2 triathlons in the last 2 years, and I'm hoping to do a couple more this year. I'm also looking to drop about 10-15 lbs. I've dropped weight occasionally but gained it back many times. It's keeping up with the workouts that I seem to struggle with. I'll start training for a tri that's 12 weeks away, and then after a week or too I make excuses and go to happy hours or just lay on the couch instead of working out. Like eyouse said, the more I sit, the harder it is to get moving. But what can I do when I'm in the office 8-6?

I'm planning on an olympic distance tri in September, so we'll see if I can stick to training. So far, not so good.