What to do in college?!?!

thewriterkid

Hello everyone! I'm new to this forum, but have been working on losing weight since January 1st. So far I'm down 30 pounds, but still have a lot to go. I'm looking for recommendations about what to do while I'm away at college this fall. I won't always have access to nutritional information to be able to count calories, but I don't want to gain weight or stop losing because I'm not being careful. What modifications/recommendations would you give to someone living in a dorm? I still want to be able to enjoy time with my friends and not miss out on what's going on. If it makes a difference, exercise seems to have the biggest impact on my weight loss as opposed to dieting. I'm also strongly considering buying a fitbit. Thank you for any suggestions!

Firephoenix013

Since you will be living in a dorm there should be a gym there or somewhere close by provided by the campus. Also walk to your classes ALL of them if you can. As for food, you can use the fitness app if you have a smart phone to try and keep track of what you eat. Just remember what things have a lot of calories and what doesn't. If there is a cafeteria on campus try to eat the fresher foods and avoid the high calorie and empty calorie fillers that don't give you much fuel for your body. And no wild party drinking!!!!!!

thewriterkid

No drinking will definitely not be a problem! I have no intention of drinking, for reasons beyond just losing weight. There is a gym and I fully intend to make use of it. I'm also taking a spinning class that I'll get credit for. Needed some kind of physical credit at some point and I figured I should take it right away to help keep me on track! I don't have a smart phone, but I do have an iPod touch so I have the app. At my school, there is a cafeteria, but there's also a lot of food court like places. There's a link on the school's website that says how to order healthy foods at each place. My concern though is that the calories I enter on MFP might not be the same as what the food really is since I can't access the nutritional information. Should I just forgo calorie counting for now and eat foods that I know are healthy or what? And thanks for your help!

AMYJK7110

Congratulations on going to college! My oldest son is at Purdue University. First, are you planning on being on the meal plan? If so, that will dictate mostly the WHERE you are going to eat. College campus' have tons of restaurants around. If you are on a plan though, you will mostly eat at campus cafeterias. Most times there are more than one cafeteria and they can differ in what they offer. Try going to the one that has the best salad and fresh food selection and just make the best choices you can. In your dorm room, if you can, have a small refrigerator, microwave and toaster oven. They come in handy. My son takes alot of classes so he doesn't have alot of time to actually go someplace to eat. He's also in a fraternity (Sigma Pi!) and has use of the kitchen there (he is not on their meal plan, so we purchase his groceries, which is cheaper than the plan) Something else that you might want to look into....my son works at a Sorority house for the cook. He helps with serving and clean up and he always gets a free meal every evening, plus he gets paid to do it! Anyways, being that the cook is cooking for mostly girls, the girls want to eat healthy, my son gets a good balanced meal. Though he does say he is getting tired of steamed vegetables! LOL So if it's possible for you to work, you can look into that option. Good luck with your education!

thewriterkid

Thank you and congratulations to your son as well! I'm on the meal plan for two reasons. One: freshmen have to be on one at my school and two: I have access to a microwave and fridge, but no toaster oven (not allowed) or stove. I'm hoping to find a job, but I want to see what the work load is like, especially first semester. I'll eventually work, but I don't know for sure what I'll be doing this first year. I'm also paying for everything on my own and unfortunately can't afford to buy separate groceries. My meal plan is good at 25 different places on campus apparently. Looking online it seems like a lot of those places offer healthy options like salads, wraps, stir fry, etc. Of course, those foods sound healthy, but even a salad can be terrible for you, depending on what is put on it.

crimson_seven

At my college, there was a student health center where they provided nutritional counseling for free. Also, in several areas they had listed the calorie/fat/etc contents of EVERYTHING served on campus. I know many colleges do that these days due to an increase of concern for nutritional content. I actually preferred to eat on campus because I ALWAYS knew the exact nutritional content of what I was eating. During orientation you can ask about where to go for nutrition information (if it is not already being advertised) or you can search their website!

Good luck! I just finished my two undergrad majors in 5 years and I'm looking at graduate school.

VMarkV

Learn how to cook (I liked watching "GoodEats" on Youtube) and see if your dorm has any kitchen areas
Invest in some basic supplies: cutting board, knives, pots, frying pan, etc. (maybe a meat thermometer)

In the past, I relied way too much on campus/cafeteria food, pre-packaged stuff, microwave food, etc. and found myself undereating severely then binging when I would visit back home.

ShanaGore

Congrats on your weight loss and college. I work with on a college campus and most all campuses have so many resources for students. Does your campus have a fitness center? Most do, and most of the time students have free access. Also, check with the staff at the fitness to center to find out what other resources besides just the equipment they have. Many have free consults with a nutritionist or free personal training sessions or free group fitness classes. When eating in the campus cafe, you just need to make good choices and eat in moderation. Sure they have tons of unhealthy things like burgers, fries, chicken nuggets and desserts. But they also have fresh veggies, salad bar and fresh fruit. So you have to chose wisely and resist temptation when eating in the cafe. Freshman usually gain so much weight because of the unlimited buffet style dining offered in most campus cafe's. If there is something prepared, like BBQ, ask them how it is prepared, so you know if it is fried or baked, skin or skinless, ect. You can still do a pretty good job of estimating your calories on MFP. And check their website, most campus cafes are managed by an outside vender and you can actually get a listing of nutritional content for all items served. Make sure the snacks you keep in your dorm are healthy snacks, keep fruits and veggies in your room. Watch out for the late night pizza. You can still have pizza with your friends, but eat one slice of pizza and then have some veggies or a salad instead of having 2-3 slices of pizza. And walk to your classes. Parking is crazy on campuses, make the most of it and burn some extra calories by walking to your classes. As a student you have to find out what resources are available to you and USE them (health wise and academically!!) and you will do awesome!

RuthieCass

I would suggest asking the cafeteria if they can provide you with nutritional information. A lot of places will have that info, but you do have to ask. I would suggest that you still log your food, even if you can only get rough estimates. Logging will help you stay on track.

I think the biggest challenge for you will be portion control, probably even more-so than avoiding the unhealthy options. To prepare yourself, get a food scale now (there are cheap options at Walmart, etc.) and start weighing your portions at home. Get a good idea of what a "6 ounce portion of chicken" and "one serving of potatoes" look like. Here's some slides to get you started: http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/portion-control/NU00267/ And a good idea to get into your head now is that *you do not have to eat the entire thing*.

Working out at the health center will certainly help, but most of your weight loss/control will come from your diet.

SlimPossible8

all great advice above so far. Another tip would be to just look into clean eating. Not that you will be able to follow clean eating to the T when you are in a dorm, however it will give you some ideas of better choices when you are out...such as brown rice instead of white...or none if they dont have brown, veggies over fries or even a salad (because most restaurant salads are NOT healthy lol) and that sort of thing. Protein Protein Protein will help! Good luck in school and congrats on your weight loss so far! feel free to add me if you want support!:happy:

meat03man

If you are anything like me in college, stay away from bars and marijuana......I got the biggest beer/weed munchies ever and ate whatever was in sight.

I would recomend buying a bunch of canned veggies, I try to eat an entire can of green beans before lunch and dinner at least once every day just to get extra veggies in, they are cheap and make me eat less junk food.....other than that afraid I can't give much info as it cost way to much to eat good when I was in college I could buy a large pizza for 5 bucks eat half for lunch half for dinner and unhealthy cereal for breakfast and realistically eat for under 6 bucks a day....that said don't go that route the pizza was tasty but really unhealthy.

seebeachrun

Hopefully you picked a college with a great campus that's perfect for walking and ideally has an awesome gym (my alma mater UCF has a rock climbing wall and resort style swimming pool!) If not, there are lots of things you can do to avoid the freshman 15. I actually lost weight in college because I was able to dump the eating habits I learned from my parents (late night snacking, Southern fried dinners, canned vegetables, etc...).

1. Keep healthy snacks in your dorm room. Lots of them. If you have access to healthy foods you will be less likely to binge on the junk food.

2. Meal plans can be your friend or your foe. Most meal plans offer healthy options like salad bars and custom sandwiches but they also offer fast food, burgers, pizza, and fries. Choose wisely. The meal plan helped me avoid eating fast food which was available on campus in the form of Taco Bell, Chik-fil-A, Sbarro, etc... But it did help that our meal plan cafeteria was run by students in the Hospitality school.

3. Drinking; and I don't just mean alcohol. Binge drinking is abundant on college campuses but it can be easily avoided. Be more concerned with allowing yourself to drink sugary sodas and coffee drinks every day. Not only are they calorie busters, they are budget busters too. Carry water with you on campus and fill up at the water fountains. A coffee here and there shouldn't be too bad but go for a tall (i.e. small) non-fat, sugar free with skim and no cream or sugar!

4. Stay active. Join an organization or a fraternity/sorority. It will give you a connection to your college as well as a pool of people to hang out with and make friends with. Plus on many college campuses these organizations are active in the school intramurals league (sports like softball, basketball, soccer, etc...). Our Greek system sponsored competitive dances and philanthropy events at least once a month. Try out a few different organizations during your first year to see where you fit in. Oh and my sorority sisters were great about organizing daily trips to the on campus gym.

elliott82

I agree with everything everyone posted. The cafeteria closest to me when I was in college had two options: the fast food style food (chicken fingers, grilled cheese, quesadillas, etc.) or the buffet style. The buffet at least had a salad bar so you could make your own salad and had "home cooked stuff" so you could pick thoruhg it and see what was okay to eat. They ALWAYS had fresh fruit in the mornings so if you could make it for breakfast, you could at least grab an apple or something to carry around with you.

I think it's really easy to overeat in college (study snacks, up too late, etc.) so keep that in mind. I lived near the gym so we'd go over there and work out, but we also started an intramural volleyball team so we could all have fun together and meet new people.

All that being said, there was a girl in my dorm who lost around 40 pounds our freshman year because she ate well and went to the gym daily. It's totally doable if you put your mind to it. And she was very popular and always seemd like she was having a good time so her new lifestyle didn't interfere with her fun.