How to Avoid the Freshman 15 (And Not Go Hungry)

Guide Note: Avoiding the freshman 15 is easy if you have a good plan and know what types of behaviors and situations lead to overeating. Use this guide to learn how to avoid the freshman 15 during your first year at college.

Table of Contents:

• Introduction
• Make A Plan
• Eating Healthy on the Meal Plan
• Get Exercise
• Manage Stress
• Keep A Journal
• Things to Avoid
• Healthy Alternatives to Eating
• Conclusion
• Resources for How to Avoid the Freshman 15

Introduction

Avoid the freshman 15, or 150! (Creative Commons photo by Sheil Naik)

• If you're getting ready for your first year of college, you've probably heard plenty of horror stories about the dreaded "Freshman 15" - that is, the 15 pounds that incoming freshman are likely to gain in their first year at school. Whether it's the result of high-calorie cafeteria food, lack of exercise, increased alcohol intake or heightened stress levels, the possibility of gaining weight is one of the most fearsome challenges that many students will have to face. Because they are on their own for the first time in their lives (without Mom or Dad regulating what they eat), many first year students tend to overindulge in the copious amounts of food that are usually available through their school's meal plan or local pizza delivery services. But have no fear. Gaining a lot of weight is not inevitable. Here's what to do.

Make A Plan

• Most successful endeavors starts with a good game plan, and maintaining a healthy weight is no exception. Before you even begin your first day of school, you should start thinking about ways in which you can manage your weight and keep your hunger in check.

1. Identify situations that you know will cause you to want to eat, such as the stress of preparing for a big test or essay assignment, homesickness, boredom, or financial issues.
2. Think about buying yourself a small refrigerator (or mini-fridge) for your dorm room and stocking it with healthy snack foods. This will keep you from relying solely on dining hall meals.
3. Think about all of the athletic activities that you are good at and which ones you might want to continue while in college.
4. Write down your plan on a piece of paper and tape it to the wall in your dorm room so that you can refer to it on a daily basis.

Eating Healthy on the Meal Plan

• Most colleges and universities offer their students a meal plan that covers the cost of eating at school-run cafeterias, restaurants and dormitory dining halls. While meal plans are usually a necessary evil of campus life, most colleges offer students different meal plan options that best fit their eating habits and lifestyle. When choosing a meal plan, try to find one that allows you the flexibility you need to keep to your goal of successfully managing your weight. Here are some tips on choosing a meal plan:

Eat lots of fruits and vegetables (Creative Commons photo by Ali Karimian)

1. While it may seem counter-intuitive, you may want to choose a meal plan that offers you unlimited access to cafeterias and dining halls rather than one that allows you only a specific amount of meals a day. Why? Students who have a limited number of alloted meals are often more likely to pile their plates up with extra food when they do eat.
2. Most colleges offer a "Vegetarian" meal plan option to their students that is generally more nutritious and healthy than normal dorm food.
3. When eating at the dining hall, try to fill your plate with low-fat foods such as fruits, vegetables and grains.
4. Avoid starchy foods such as pasta, bread, and french fries, as well as fried foods, fatty meats and rich desserts.
5. Don't skip a meal in order to make up for a pig out session. Forced starvation will just cause your body's metabolism to slow down, making it harder for your body to process the calories.
6. Find out nutritional information for all of the food that is served at your campus's dining halls. These days, many universities will have resources (either online or through nutritional pamphlets) that give students specific information on the nutritional and calorie content of the food that is served. Chartwell Dining Services offers a website that shows the nutritional content of food at the 260 colleges they serve, as well as a tool for calculating your body mass index.

Get Exercise

• In addition to maintaining a healthy balanced diet, engaging in regular exercise and physical activity is the most important thing that you can do in order to keep yourself fit. While college life is not always the most conducive environment to exercising (what with all the studying, partying and... well, more studying and partying), maintaining a regular exercise schedule can help you burn off lots of calories. Here are some ways to make exercise a part of your daily schedule.

Join an intramural sports league (CC photo by Ajay Tallam)

1. Most colleges and universities have an athletic center or gym that its students can use for free. Take advantage of this by scheduling regular workout sessions, either before or after class - whenever works best for you.
2. Find a sport that you enjoy and consider joining an intramural league. Colleges usually have non-competitive leagues available for all types of sports, such as softball, basketball, flag football and tennis.
3. If you can't make it to the gym, try a 30 minute jog, walk or bike ride around campus. If you don't have time for that, try jogging to your classes rather than taking the bus or driving.
4. Take a break from your all-night study session to do a few jumping jacks or climb the stairs in your dorm. It's not just good exercise; it can help clear your head and make it easier to focus on your studying.

Manage Stress

• Stress is often a constant factor in the lives of college students. Whether it's from cramming for a final exam, rushing to finish a 15 page essay, managing a hectic extracurricular schedule or dealing with a complicated social life, stress can be one of the main reasons that students overeat.
  

  Don't let stress get you down (Creative Commons photo by Bryan Gosline)
  During stressful situations, people tend to turn to things that bring them comfort, such as eating. Here are some tips on how to minimize the stress in your life and prevent the stress eating that can cause you to gain weight.

1. Keep yourself and your schedule organized. Knowing where you have to be and what you have to do at any given time can greatly reduce the stress that can come from missing an appointment, forgetting a deadline or forgetting where you left your car keys. Try using a calendar or personal organizer to keep track of your obligations.
2. Try to get between 7 and 8 hours of sleep a night. Not only will this help you become more alert during the day (and better able to deal with stressful situations), it has also been shown to help you maintain a healthy weight.
3. Exercise can be a great way to relieve tension and reduce stress. It can also help you burn calories, making it both a stress and weight reducer.
4. If you're stressed out because of an upcoming exam, check out Mahalo's guide on How to Cram for an Exam.

Keep A Journal

Keep a food journal (Creative Commons photo by Lexie)

• One way to keep track of the food you eat (and the calories you consume) is to keep a Food Journal. Keeping a food journal will allow you to better monitor your food consumption habits so that you can adjust your food intake. A food journal can also be a good place to write down any feelings, issues or patterns you begin to notice regarding your eating habits.

1. Keep a record of your hunger level and mood before and after each meal. Try to notice patterns of behavior that trigger the desire to eat.
2. Write down the calorie content of each of the food items you consume during the day. Add up the total and compare it to the amount of calories you should be eating. Use this handy Calorie Counter to determine how many calories you need to eat in order to maintain your current weight.
3. At the end of each week, read back over what you have written and try to take that information into consideration when planning your schedule for the next week.

Things To Avoid

• It may seem pretty obvious, but there are a number of behaviors that you will want to avoid in order to minimize the possibility of gaining the freshman 15. You don't need to give them up completely; this is college, after all. But you should keep an eye on how often they occur and how likely they are to make you gain weight.

Avoid drinking too much beer (Creative Commons photo by Mike Murrow)

1. Alcohol is one of the main reasons that freshman gain a lot weight in college. Beer is usually the main culprit, as a single beer usually contains at least 150 empty calories. Try to keep your alcohol consumption to the weekends and avoid excessive binge drinking.
2. Easily accessible pizza delivery is another reason that students pack on extra pounds. It's late at night, the dining hall is closed, and you're starving. Sounds perfect, right? Unfortunately, pizza is loaded with calories and fat. Try keeping some healthy snacks in your room (such as pretzels, nuts or dried fruit) that you can munch on when you get a late night snack attack.
3. Try to keep those all night study sessions to a minimum. Sleep deprivation can cause students to gain weight, as those extra hours awake are just more time to eat and drink.
4. Don't get down on yourself if you happen to slip up and miss a workout, have an extra bowl of ice cream, or drink too much one night. We're all human, and we all need to treat ourselves every once in while. Just try to keep those instances to a minimum.

Healthy Alternatives to Eating

• One great way to cut down on overeating is to develop a number of healthy alternatives to eating that you can do whenever you feel an urge to eat. Since boredom and loneliness can often lead to overeating, becoming active and finding things that interest you can help reduce those times that you turn to food for comfort.

1. Learn a new instrument. Whether it's the piano, the guitar, or something a little more exotic, learning how to play an instrument can be a fun way to take your mind off eating (because you can't eat and play at the same time!). Check out Mahalo's pages on How to Play Guitar for Newbies and How To Play Piano For Beginners to get you started.
2. Hobbies are another great way to divert your attention away from food urges. Hobbies such as Knitting, Painting, Pottery and Quilting are great because you can do them by yourself whenever you feel an urge coming on.
3. As discussed above, sports can be a great diversion. Joining an intramural league can help get you out of your dorm room, allow you to meet some new people, and provide you with a fun way to get exercise.

Conclusion

• Your freshman year at college should be one of the best of your life, so try not to take away from that by stressing yourself out too much over your weight and appearance. Some amount of indulgence is inevitable. But you can prevent any extra weight gain by being mindful of what you eat, when you eat, and how much you eat. So, use the tips in this guide to help you manage your weight and your eating habits and you'll have a better chance of making it through your freshman year without gaining unwanted pounds. Eat well, and have a great year!

Stay Healthy and Fit (Creative Commons photo by Alla G)

Resources for How to Avoid the Freshman 15

• CNN: College Freshman Can Avoid the "Freshman 15" August 19, 1999
• TeensHealth: Beating the Freshman 15
• eHow: How to Avoid the Freshman 15
• About.com: How to Avoid the Freshman 15  
• HowToDoThings.com: How to Avoid the Freshman 15
• eCampusTours.com: Beat the Freshman 15
• cbs5.com: Colleges Help Students Avoid "The Freshman 15" August 20, 2006

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