School ruins my workouts

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mithranor
mithranor Posts: 10 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
So I want to workout ~5-6 times a week but I am in college and my schedule is constantly changing filling any "free time" between/after classes with meetings or work that I cannot get out of. So I'll plan to run at 11am on MWF but then Wednesday I have a meeting and Friday suddenly I have to meet with a group about our semester project, so suddenly my 3 days of running is down to one day and I don't have any other times to make up the workout. Same thing happens with TuThSun: I'll workout Sunday (lifting) but then Tuesday I have to go to a meeting and Thursday another meeting is scheduled!

It should be noted that each of these meetings are all for completely different groups or for work and these scenarios both happened this week, cutting my workout to 2 days (Sunday and Monday).

Does anyone have any advice for how to plan around this? Over the summer I started using a TDEE method for regulating my calories but now with not being able to stick to my schedule this TDEE is wrong and I can't even determine how many workouts I will have in a given week until the end of the week since I don't know when something will come up. Should I switch to marking myself as "Sedentary" and eating back exercise calories? Any suggestions are welcome.

Replies

  • All4Me2014xx
    All4Me2014xx Posts: 155 Member
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    Can you get in your workout before your day starts?
  • lynndot1
    lynndot1 Posts: 114 Member
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    You may not like this answer if you aren't a morning person but: In college I had 8ams most days, and did the gym before class. Got there at 6am when it opened almost every morning. Early bird gets the workout, I guess?
  • mithranor
    mithranor Posts: 10 Member
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    I tried that, but waking up so early makes doing homework at night difficult since I may be up till 12-2am doing homework but want to wake up at 6am to go workout. So a similar thing happens: I do homework till 2 and when my alarm goes off at 6 I turn it off for another couple of hours because I need more than 4 hours of sleep to get through the day :(
  • All4Me2014xx
    All4Me2014xx Posts: 155 Member
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    Got it. Not sure with your class load plus your other commitments, what you can do. Maybe just accept that this semester is going to be light on workouts? Focus on eating as well as you can within your calorie goal and up your workouts once things start to calm down for you.
  • martinel2099
    martinel2099 Posts: 899 Member
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    Make the time. Most gyms even on campus are open late. If you miss a day during the week going to the gym on the weekend wouldn't hurt.

    Also, why do you want to workout 5-6 times per week? That might be your problem right there. Generally speaking you can do the gym 3-4 days a week and have no problem reaching your goals.

    Also, if you're trying to lose weight you can't out exercise a bad diet. Diet is #1. If you need to be working out 6 days a week to justify how you're eating that isn't good.

    I workout 4-5 days per week max and 3 of those days I don't burn many calories at all because they are my heavy lifting days. I don't lift weights to burn calories and to eat more food, I lift weights to hold onto muscle mass while maintaining a calorie deficit diet. I don't want to lose as much muscle.
  • mithranor
    mithranor Posts: 10 Member
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    You may not like this answer if you aren't a morning person but: In college I had 8ams most days, and did the gym before class. Got there at 6am when it opened almost every morning. Early bird gets the workout, I guess?
    Yeah, see my classes don't start until 10am or 12:30PM depending on the day, so I was already working out before class but thats when the meetings started to get schedules since those are the only times where everyone can meet. Then since my schedule starts late it ends lat (about 6:30PM) so I go home, eat dinner, and start homework and am doing that until late at night making getting up even earlier to workout before the meetings start very difficult and unhealthy (4 hours a night is bad)
  • mithranor
    mithranor Posts: 10 Member
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    Make the time. Most gyms even on campus are open late. If you miss a day during the week going to the gym on the weekend wouldn't hurt.

    Also, why do you want to workout 5-6 times per week? That might be your problem right there. Generally speaking you can do the gym 3-4 days a week and have no problem reaching your goals.

    Also, if you're trying to lose weight you can't out exercise a bad diet. Diet is #1. If you need to be working out 6 days a week to justify how you're eating that isn't good.

    I workout 4-5 days per week max and 3 of those days I don't burn many calories at all because they are my heavy lifting days. I don't lift weights to burn calories and to eat more food, I lift weights to hold onto muscle mass while maintaining a calorie deficit diet. I don't want to lose as much muscle.

    I think you are right and I will have to reduce the number of workouts/week. The reason I was doing 6/week was because I could during the summer, I worked a set schedule and could workout 5 days before work started and once on the weekend if I wanted to.
  • martinel2099
    martinel2099 Posts: 899 Member
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    Make the time. Most gyms even on campus are open late. If you miss a day during the week going to the gym on the weekend wouldn't hurt.

    Also, why do you want to workout 5-6 times per week? That might be your problem right there. Generally speaking you can do the gym 3-4 days a week and have no problem reaching your goals.

    Also, if you're trying to lose weight you can't out exercise a bad diet. Diet is #1. If you need to be working out 6 days a week to justify how you're eating that isn't good.

    I workout 4-5 days per week max and 3 of those days I don't burn many calories at all because they are my heavy lifting days. I don't lift weights to burn calories and to eat more food, I lift weights to hold onto muscle mass while maintaining a calorie deficit diet. I don't want to lose as much muscle.

    I think you are right and I will have to reduce the number of workouts/week. The reason I was doing 6/week was because I could during the summer, I worked a set schedule and could workout 5 days before work started and once on the weekend if I wanted to.

    That's a good point yeah, just wait until you're a working professional and start having children. You don't want to fall into the trap that you "have" to workout 24/7 in order to stay healthy. When life gets busy you can still achieve your goals at the gym, it's just a little give and take.

    Also try things like walking more in between classes. A pedometer would be a great thing to invest in, you can sometimes find them free too around college campuses. Good way to squeeze in a little extra walking/exercise during your everyday stuff.
  • mithranor
    mithranor Posts: 10 Member
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    Make the time. Most gyms even on campus are open late. If you miss a day during the week going to the gym on the weekend wouldn't hurt.

    Also, why do you want to workout 5-6 times per week? That might be your problem right there. Generally speaking you can do the gym 3-4 days a week and have no problem reaching your goals.

    Also, if you're trying to lose weight you can't out exercise a bad diet. Diet is #1. If you need to be working out 6 days a week to justify how you're eating that isn't good.

    I workout 4-5 days per week max and 3 of those days I don't burn many calories at all because they are my heavy lifting days. I don't lift weights to burn calories and to eat more food, I lift weights to hold onto muscle mass while maintaining a calorie deficit diet. I don't want to lose as much muscle.

    I think you are right and I will have to reduce the number of workouts/week. The reason I was doing 6/week was because I could during the summer, I worked a set schedule and could workout 5 days before work started and once on the weekend if I wanted to.

    That's a good point yeah, just wait until you're a working professional and start having children. You don't want to fall into the trap that you "have" to workout 24/7 in order to stay healthy. When life gets busy you can still achieve your goals at the gym, it's just a little give and take.

    Also try things like walking more in between classes. A pedometer would be a great thing to invest in, you can sometimes find them free too around college campuses. Good way to squeeze in a little extra walking/exercise during your everyday stuff.
    Yeah I park close to where I work on campus (to save some time) and then walk everywhere else on campus, which some days is a good distance while others my classes are right next to each other
  • Kalikel
    Kalikel Posts: 9,626 Member
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    If you truly have no time to workout, go back to sedentary and diet the pounds away.

    When I was in college, I never read books for pleasure, watched TV or did anything fun except for study group (during which I was the wet blanket who was always saying, "Okay, guys, we really should do some studying.") I always felt like if I had time, I should be studying. Even standing in line at the grocery store, I was doing flash cards, lol. My house went to hell. The day I took the last final, I came home and started cleaning, organizing, etc.

    If it hadn't have been for Study Group, I'd have done little socializing (but I'd have studied more, lol.)

    School can be all-consuming. But it's more important than anything else. That's your future on the line. It has to have top priority.

    Go back to just the calories. Sneak in exercise with jumping jacks here and there. Do some planking, dance while you wash dishes, etc. consider any exercise a bonus. :)

    Good luck in school!
  • fuelednfit
    fuelednfit Posts: 177 Member
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    Hi there,

    I am a PhD student and I have a 3years old kid. Terrible schedule and in between add a gastro, a cold an asthma attack, a night in the emergency for the little one...it means an extra abscence in the lab/class and trying to make up for it. I get your difficulty in planning.
    Now I train 7days a week cardio and I started strength exercise 3times a week. My advice might sound silly, but what helped me was to change my priorities. I made a promise to myself not to skip training at all. I did my cardio when sick. Today its raining I am still going out for my cardio. Two days ago my son slept at 10h30pm and I still went to the gym for an hour after that because my priority is to train, that night I did not clean the dishes, I ran and lifted. I did the dishes the next morning. Priority. Training in the morning didn't work out...I will keep trying to fit it in my schedule until I go to bed. Have a quick lunch and go exercise instead of sitting in the cafeteria for 30min to 1h with the others, make it easy, just go out and run, always have a change of clothes with you. Wake up earlier or go to bed later. I never exercised all my life and now I get anxious and mad at myself when I feel out of time for exercise, so I find time, surprisingly. Just decide what you want for yourself. You can reduce your load, but if me the lazy exercise illiterate managed to do it, you can.
  • bohemian124
    bohemian124 Posts: 153 Member
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    Try writing out a schedule of what your typical day looks like with classes and ongoing commitments (job, weekly study group, etc). Remember to figure in the time you need for meals and studying. If you generally wake up and go to bed the same time every day, write that in. Try to find a few times 4-5 times/week that might be a good time to work out - could be first thing when you wake up, could be during your lunch hour, before dinner, etc. When scheduling the less regular meetings, try to remember that you have certain times on certain days blocked off for working out. You don't have to say, "no, I'm working out then." Just say you have something going on and can't make it at that time, and try to suggest something else.

    I take classes at a gym that I have to RSVP for. I get penalized if I cancel with less than 12 hours notice, which has actually helped keep me super accountable to my goals - only 1-2 classes missed in 9 months, and I go 3-4 times/week on average. When I RSVP, I put the class in my phone calendar so I remember, and it becomes part of my schedule for the day.

    If none of this works, maybe invest in a few DVDs you can work out to in your dorm/apartment.

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