Maintaining in college?

Cooking should definitely help! I lived in a dorm last year as a freshman (this year I got an apartment) and I cooked almost everything that I ate in our kitchens. I would cook breakfast and dinner and bring lunch with me most days so I wouldn't end up eating something unhealthy. For early mornings, I would usually make or buy something healthy in advance so I wouldn't feel rushed. I actually ended up losing my freshman 15!

However, my school doesn't have a cafeteria (in midtown NYC), so the only alternative was to eat out, so it wasn't uncommon for students to bring lunch. If your school cafeteria provides nutrition information, that'll be really useful! When you arrive, pick out some options in the cafeteria that you know can become healthy staples. Feel free to ask the staff how certain foods are prepared to see if they're healthy.

I also agree with keeping active in sports.

I never gained weight when I went off to college. As far as eating goes, I did eat as much and whatever I wanted in the cafeteria because I had never thought about calories or dieting and was anti-diet/restriction at that time in my life. But I did make sure I ate a lot of vegetables, protein, and good nutrition, and I stopped eating when I was full. I probably balanced it out by not eating many snacks between meals (just occasionally). But, I was in school for dance, I also worked at the fitness center and worked out there, I didn't have a car, and for recreation I danced at parties (no drinking for me). So, I was extremely active. But, the only actual sports my college had was a soccer team.

Most people are busy doing their own thing and may not even notice you measuring. If they ask just explain it in a way you feel will be well received. They will just accept it as one your quirks that make you you (that's how college is, you learn about all different people and the different things they do and ways they do things).

Yes, and no. While you want to be healthy, I think there's also something to be said for health in moderation.

Socially, it's not exactly a condoned social practice to use those items in public. Be prepared for some resistance, odd-looks, gossip, etc about it. I think a good rule of thumb, is that if you wouldn't do it in a restaurant, don't do it in the dining hall. (For instance, you wouldn't bring a food scale to measure the ounces of meat in a hamburger at a restaurant because that would be rude. Measuring a tablespoon of mayonnaise or something I would also say is going "too far" for the dining hall)

Ideally, I would recommend you use those measuring items at home to get a better understanding of appropriate measurements and then ballpark it at the dining hall (chicken the size of your palm, a TBSP of jam the size of your nail, how much milk constitutes a cup, etc.).

If you want to bring a tablespoon to discretely measure salad dressing in the dining hall I would deem that acceptable (perhaps telling people who give you a look that you love dressing so much you tend to overdo it!) But I would strongly advise you against bringing out a ring of measuring cups or an ounce scale with you. That's going to cause a lot of negative buzz about eating disorders and food obsession.

Conversely, you could embrace it. Tell people that you lost a significant amount of weight through measuring portions and you're excited to stay healthy in college so that you can finally join the cross country team! Be prepared though for people that will not understand this, will resent you for moderation when they are not practicing it, and will put you down to make themselves feel better about their eating habits.

Good luck and have a great year!!!

You have a good idea, like another poster, college weight is what brought me here as well. Those all you can eat cafeterias are dangerous (mmhmm Lucky Charms and pizza and fries galore!) While I had problems with all you can eat, I also had problems when it came to late night study sessions. All I would want to eat (and all that was available that late) were unhealthy things i.e. candy and chips. Make sure you keep some fruit and pre portioned snacks in your backpack for study times. If not, just make sure you read labels. Also stay away from energy drinks....those got me through many all-nighters but I would feel horrible coming off of them the next day. Not to mention the calories and sugar in them.

Good luck! I'm only about a year out of college and definitely miss it, but I now work for the college I went to so it all worked out.

I'm just wondering if anyone has any advice for me. I already plan on keeping up with my love for running and possibly joining the cross country team. Not only that, but I'll be walking to and from class and activities every day.

Do you guys think it would be weird or "frowned upon" if I brought measuring cups or even a food scale to the cafeterias to measure out cereal or what have you for those times where I need to get food at the cafeteria? Would you do that if you were me?

When it comes to measuring devices, you might be able to bring them, but I'd avoid using them in the food lines. Hungry college students aren't the most patient of individuals, and the sanitation folks might have a fit if you're using your own measuring cups / spoons to get items off the line.

As people have said, it will be a good idea for you to maintian your activity level. The biggest surprise to me was the amount of "free" time (the time not spent in the classroom) that I had in the middle of the day. You can definitely use this to your benefit.

This is just a theory, so you can take it or leave it, but I think part of the origin of the "Freshman 15" lies in college cafeterias that are only open for brief periods, which might prompt students to eat more in order to get through to the next meal time. At my school, we had the benefit of a cafeteria that was open from 7 AM through 10 PM. Sure, they weren't producing food all the time, but you could always count on being able to stop by and get something to eat as needed. Of course, access to lots of food at mealtime that you don't have to cook for yourself is also probably part of the problem.

In general, if you're active and pay some degree of attention to what you're eating, it won't be hard to keep your weight under control.

it is not so much the food that gets to freshman 15 it is the ETOH

I am going to have to agree here. My first two years in college I did not gain weight, in fact I lost weight. My schedule was crammed with 8 classes and working 35 hours a week, and I flat out didn't have time to eat too much. If I went to the dining hall, it was for a short amount of time just to eat something small and leave for class. It only takes a little bit of discipline to not eat everything in sight since mine was a buffet style cafeteria, but once I learned to limit myself I was okay. My dining hall also had the option to "cash out" your meal for the day, taking items from the store to count as a meal like an apple, a drink, and a frozen burrito. I was so active walking to and from classes that I did not gain any weight. I did drink then, but I mainly stuck to vodka cranberry's and hated beer.

I did gain weight once I moved to the on campus apartments, surprisingly with a full kitchen inside. Instead of learning to cook, I found beer... and pizza.. and nights out with my friends.

I think you will be totally okay as long as you have a conscious mind about it, which is something not many 18 year olds have! I only wish I knew this much about nutrition that long ago.

As for the food scale and measuring cups, I would leave them in the dorm room and use them for your own cooking in the kitchen, but leave them out of the dining hall. Like someone on here said, it is a little unheard of to be measuring things like that in public.

do what makes it easiest for you to feel comfortable about what you're putting into your body. great job on losing your weight and making it to goal. i did the reverse 15, i loss weight instead of gaining it, it's all about choices and they're yours to make

Don't worry about it too much. You said you already have an understanding of what you need to be eating to feel good and maintain a healthy weight. The reason most students gain weight when they go to school is because they finally have the freedom and ample opportunity to eat junk food all the time, and alcohol (but I'll get to that later). Since you already have a general idea about the nutition content of food and proper serving sizes I wouldn't worry about bring a scale or measuring cups to the cafeteria. In my cafteria the lines were always packed and moving quickly, so measuring out things would likely bak up the lines and annoy those around you who are in a rush to get to class or somewhere. Also, counter space is limited in the cafeteria and you'll likely be carrying a tray and backpack which will make it extremely difficult to measure everything out. But, if you really feel like you HAVE to measure things, just ignore anyone complaining and do what makes you happy.

At my university and the other schools I have have visited food is put into disposable containers. When I was at school I usually ate lunch in my dorm room so I could study during that time. A lot of people bring their food back to their room, so you can easily do that and measure it there and store anything extra in your mini fridge. My school also had a c-store that we could use our meal points at, and sometimes I would buy food from there because everything is pre-packaged with nutitional info printed on the package. Mine has veggie sticks, hard boiled eggs, cheese sticks, friut cups, and hummus that I could spend some of my left over points on to make sure I had healthy, portioned out snacks for studying or late nights.

I think one of the hardest calorie punches to manage in college is alcohol. A lot of students start drinking regularly in school and pack on the pounds from high calorie drinks like beer and late night snacking after drinking. I love going drinking with my friends so I've memorized what I can drink for low calories (vodka and tequila are my friends) and I never drunk eat, which helps a lot.

So to wrap it up, don't stress about it, college is supposed to be a fun learning experience. You already have the basic knowledge of how to live a healthy lifestyle, so use that and you'll be just fine. Do what you can to make healthy choices, avoid most temptations, but don't forget to live a little because you are going to have some of the best times of your life in school :bigsmile:

Yes, and no. While you want to be healthy, I think there's also something to be said for health in moderation.

Socially, it's not exactly a condoned social practice to use those items in public. Be prepared for some resistance, odd-looks, gossip, etc about it. I think a good rule of thumb, is that if you wouldn't do it in a restaurant, don't do it in the dining hall. (For instance, you wouldn't bring a food scale to measure the ounces of meat in a hamburger at a restaurant because that would be rude. Measuring a tablespoon of mayonnaise or something I would also say is going "too far" for the dining hall)

Ideally, I would recommend you use those measuring items at home to get a better understanding of appropriate measurements and then ballpark it at the dining hall (chicken the size of your palm, a TBSP of jam the size of your nail, how much milk constitutes a cup, etc.).

If you want to bring a tablespoon to discretely measure salad dressing in the dining hall I would deem that acceptable (perhaps telling people who give you a look that you love dressing so much you tend to overdo it!) But I would strongly advise you against bringing out a ring of measuring cups or an ounce scale with you. That's going to cause a lot of negative buzz about eating disorders and food obsession.

Conversely, you could embrace it. Tell people that you lost a significant amount of weight through measuring portions and you're excited to stay healthy in college so that you can finally join the cross country team! Be prepared though for people that will not understand this, will resent you for moderation when they are not practicing it, and will put you down to make themselves feel better about their eating habits.

Good luck and have a great year!!!

As much as I would love to tell you to do whatever you want because it's your health and your choices, I'm going to have to agree with this ^^^. Use measuring devices at home to get a good idea of what different sizes and weights look like so you can eyeball it in the dining halls.

I don't know where you're going, but a lot of the larger schools do a good job of publishing the nutritional content of their food. My undergrad school had everything published on the dining services website, so it was super easy for me to figure out what to have before going down and getting something. One of the main reasons people gain the freshman 15 is that they don't know much about nutrition and calories, so they don't realize that a steady diet of muffins and lattes for breakfast, burgers and fries for lunch, half a pizza for dinner, smoothies for snacks, and late night study ice cream will pack on pounds. You know better so as long as you pay attention to what you're eating you have quite the advantage over most of your class in avoiding that weight gain.

I wouldn't take that stuff to the cafeteria but maybe that's just me. It is not hard to stay in shape in college, it turned out to be the opposite for me. A gym is close by, friends typically like to go together and besides the first day no one really treats the cafeteria like a all you can eat buffet.

I am maintaining in college as well and I measure things at home but would not do it in public because I see it as a huge hassle to bring that with you. It's not that hard to eye what 3/4 cup of cereal looks like after being on MFP for almost two years. I would give it a go and in a week or two you notice you are gaining you should maybe think about bringing in the scale and measuring cups.

Yeah, I do agree with a few points here.

1) College weight gain is probably mostly from drinking. I only drank alcohol a few times when I was in college. It was not something I did regularly. I went to parties and I danced my heart out.

2) There could be a negative response to the measuring devices. I would not bring it in right off the bat. Go and get a feel for things. Make friends. See if you think it would work or not. In the end you need to decide what you think it best for you though. You have gotten a lot of good advice here.

You can do mfp and maintain without measuring. I do not have a food scale. I only occasionally measure with a spoon or cup. I go by estimates and it works fine for me.

After the first month you'll get tired of the food and eat small portions no worries

The Freshman 15 is tough I think its a combination of

1. Cafeteria Food
2. Increased Alcohol and Partying
3. Lack of Exercise

Most colleges have their own gym and even exercise classes you can take for free

don't worry about what others think if you have to bring measuring cups go for it

reduce the carbs like rice and potatoes and increase your veggie intake. If there are not enough healthy options dont hesitate to make a complaint, they are required to have good choices

be careful with the late night partying, lack of sleep, stress from classes, and drinking too much

You can try to stick to things which are a definite portion rather than free-flowing - I'm thinking a piece of chicken or fish rather than a helping of spaghetti bolognaise?

im going to suggest an alternative that might make you think WTF.

It is called Intermittent fasting. No you are not depriving, its just strategically choosing when you eat and when you don't, perfect for the uni/ college student!

You can do the Warrior Diet style of IF or the Leangains style

Warrior Diet: you fast for around 20hours of the day and have a 4 hour eating window in which you consume all of your calories for the day. This may be difficult at first but after a few weeks you will adapt to the lifestyle. http://www.warriordiet.com/

Leangains: you fast for around 16hours minimum and have an 8 hour eating window. http://www.leangains.com/

With IF you have to fit it to your schedule. Just research it and find more info

What i'm saying is that with IF, you can skip eating during the day and completely avoid cafeterias and just eat at night with meals you've made or know the contents of.

Just food for thought