Is there a "Poor College Student" diet..?

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ravenrainchild
ravenrainchild Posts: 22 Member
in Food and Nutrition
Hey guys...

I'm having a really hard time getting in enough calories lately. I barely hit 1200 on some days and I know thats really bad!! Like so bad, i've maintained the same weight for 2months(??) when all ive been doing is monitoring what i shovel into my mouth. I've also been doing Jililan Michaels Body Revolution for the last four weeks...

My budget is super tight. I gotta say I'm living on barely anything. I eat eggs in the morning w/ greek yogurt. then during the day i'll squeeze in a lean cuisine. then at night it's chicken or miscellaneous snacks combined into a meal.



Anyways, I'll get to the point now. The calculator says I should be taking in ROUGHLY 1500-1600 calories when im working out.
Do you know of any stellar websites that offer CHEAP (broke *kitten* college student, remember) and EASY (also i'm no fancy cook here) meals that I can fit into my diet?

Replies

  • TwistDSG
    TwistDSG Posts: 10 Member
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    Exact same problem I'm having! My budget is tight and my schedule is even tighter. I was barely getting 1000 calories daily. I just try to stock up on random snacks like apples, bananas, yogurt, protein bars, and stuff along the day in case meals won't fit in somewhere. I just started this recently so I'll see how this works.
  • xmysterix
    xmysterix Posts: 114 Member
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    Here are a couple sites that might help :) Good luck!

    http://studentrecipes.com/
    http://www.mnsu.edu/shs/healtheducation/bmc/
    http://www.onlinecollege.org/2009/10/13/100-delicious-dirt-cheap-recipes-for-the-starving-student/
  • aliciamelvin
    aliciamelvin Posts: 3 Member
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    Make bulk foods for cheap. I get frozen veggie bags, make hearty soups that will last for days and are filling/healthy. Love your crock pot because you can make a lot with a little. If you don't have a costco card or a friend that has one, do a trial one and buy what you need for cheap. I try to make everything from scratch and plan out meals a week at a time. Hope that helped.
  • shakeelm91
    shakeelm91 Posts: 1
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    For me I like to keep it simple and cheap.
    Chicken salads everywhere.
    $6 whole chicken from Costco
    ~$4 giant bin of spring mix from Costco

    Then anything else you can add in is amazing.

    You could get by on that for Lunch & Dinner for at least 5 days, add in another $5-10 worth of other salad stuff and you've got a pretty low cost very healthy set of meals for the week!
  • bombedpop
    bombedpop Posts: 2,184 Member
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    It's cheaper to make your own food than eat a Lean Cuisine. Ex. an entire tray/recipe of 6 portions of lasagna costs the same a 1.5 Lean Cuisines, or a package of chicken breasts + rice + seasonings + bag of frozen veg which will give you 6 meals costs 1/2 price of a Lean Cuisine per portion, I really can't think of what else Lean Cuisine makes, but you get the idea.
  • celinatime9793
    celinatime9793 Posts: 1 Member
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    I buy lots of Chicken breast, sweet potatoes, Zatarain's rice and beans, popcorn and frozen vegetables. I've been finding brown rice mixed with cooked and cut up chicken with broccoli to be tasty and filling with plenty of calories and nutrients. Bananas are cheap and good for you too. I've been managing to keep our (me and my bf) food bill down to about $80/month and we both eat at least 2000 calories a day he usually needs a lot more than me. Hope this helps!

    Also cooking in bulk in portioning out your week's meals ahead of time really helps.
  • MsKLarkin
    MsKLarkin Posts: 88 Member
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    Here are a couple sites that might help :) Good luck!

    http://studentrecipes.com/
    http://www.mnsu.edu/shs/healtheducation/bmc/
    http://www.onlinecollege.org/2009/10/13/100-delicious-dirt-cheap-recipes-for-the-starving-student/

    Thank you for sharing, looking for ways to save money.
  • ayamagali
    ayamagali Posts: 167 Member
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    Once upon a time I was even more broke than I am now. I survived on a food budget of $12/week. I lived on pork, rice, and frozen veggie bowls.

    Btw, a 3-pack of tofu is $3.67 at my Costco. Holy amaze-balls!
  • MyChocolateDiet
    MyChocolateDiet Posts: 22,281 Member
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    these types of threads always make me feel like crying. i remember being a college student it was hard. it was a struggle. me and a friend would come back from weekends with fruit and veggies off our relatives trees and home gardens. her mom's avocado's and my aunts tomatoes would go into tortillas we bought at the store and split the pack.

    also i have a kid in college now. i worry. but I hope the links provided will be helpful and that all you college kiddos get enough to eat. i hope mine does and also my only advice.... call ur mama's...i bet they'd be happy to send a grocery store card in the mail to make sure you have enough to eat if only you'd let them know. it's sad we always forget about the kids who are struggling to be good kids and working on their futures.
  • lebaker310
    lebaker310 Posts: 164 Member
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    http://www.poorgirleatswell.com/

    Best website. I am so cheap when it comes to food. I used to hate shopping so I would only go every 3 weeks. Now I go every week so I don't waste any produce. I go to a Mexican market (I live in Texas) which is pretty cheap and mostly doesn't use pesticides. Or Aldis. Their produce selection is pretty good.
  • Mr_Starr
    Mr_Starr Posts: 139 Member
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    I had same problem back in my college days...I struggled to maintain my weight and got dangerously thin ...

    To save money and increase my calorie intake

    -- avoid all packaged foods. They are way to expensive for what you get. Better to cook from scratch ( i still do today)
    -- I bought 50 lbs bags of rice, or better yet, I went in with some friends to buy a even larger bags.
    -- Peanut butter. Great for protein and is calorie dense.
    -- Dairy. Whole Milk and Cheese. A glass of delicious whole milk for breakfast is a great way to start the day. :smile: oh- how i miss it.
    -- Splurge on good oil (olive oil for low temp cooking and salads, peanut oil for high cooking temps). Oil has lots of calories and enhances flavor of other foods. For salads a little olive oil helps you get more of the nutrition from the salad. As even today i don't use much oil, i found buying small quantity of good oil is worth it.


    Cheers and good luck.

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