How to Avoid the Freshman 15
Are you wondering how to avoid the freshman 15 in college?
The dreaded “freshman 15” refers to the 15 pounds that first-year college students often gain. The freshman 15 is caused by a variety of factors.
Not every freshman student will gain weight, and it might not be exactly 15 pounds, but this phenomenon is common enough that it does affect many students.
What Causes the Freshman 15?
Some of the things that can cause weight gain during your freshman year are:
- A change in eating habits: In college, you will suddenly have access to a dining hall where you can eat unlimited food all the time. This causes many students to up their portion sizes and eat larger meals.
- Increased snacking: You might also start snacking more in college, especially if you keep snacks in your dorm room where you work/live/eat/sleep.
- Decreased activity levels: Many college students go from playing sports in high school to a less active lifestyle in college. Unless you’re a college athlete, you might see a big decrease in your levels of exercise.
- Going out and drinking: Going to parties and drinking is unfortunately another cause of weight gain in college — alcohol has tons of calories!
- Eating as a coping mechanism: College is a big transition and freshman year can be stressful, leading to overeating as a way to cope.
I was able to avoid the freshman 15 and I’m going to share my tips for how I did it below.
In fact, I did not gain any weight all throughout college — I stayed within 5 pounds of what I weighed in high school, and I have continued to maintain this weight throughout my twenties because of many of the healthy habits listed below.
Important Things to Note
Before I get into sharing my tips, I wanted to note that your weight does not define you.
I’m not writing about this because I think anyone should feel ashamed of gaining weight or allow it to affect their self-worth.
You might gain weight in college even if you’re eating a healthy, balanced diet and staying active. This is a common thing that happens as you continue to shift from adolescence to adulthood. A few extra pounds is totally okay!
But what I’m talking about below is a more noticeable weight gain that is caused by unhealthy eating habits and a more sedentary lifestyle. This is what causes the “freshman 15” for many students and it IS avoidable!
Here’s what worked for me in avoiding the freshman 15, and what you can do too:
Avoid treating the dining hall like an all-you-can-eat buffet.
Most freshmen college students will be on a dining plan of some sort, which gives you access to your college dining halls.
The food served at the dining hall is typically buffet-style and it might not always be the healthiest options. It can be tempting to fill your plate with huge portion sizes and go up for second and third servings, but this can quickly contribute to weight gain.
Instead, create a balanced plate at the dining hall and go for the healthier or lighter options.
My dining hall had a “grab and go” option where you could get a pre-packaged meal consisting of a sandwich, a bag of chips, a fruit, and a cookie. I would do this for lunch most days and it was a much more reasonable portion size.
Don’t keep unhealthy snacks in your dorm room.
My freshman year roommate and I kept our dorm room really clean, and neither of us really liked to keep much food in the room.
I think this definitely helped in avoiding gaining weight.
I would keep some granola bars in a drawer in case I ever got hungry, but I wouldn’t keep unhealthy snacks like chips or candy in my room. If I wanted to get a snack, I had to walk out of the building and go to the nearest vending machine (in another building a couple of minutes away) which would usually deter me unless I really wanted it.
This helped me keep snacking under control. Now did I ever deprive myself of a snack if I really wanted one? No! But I prevented myself from snacking purely out of boredom and saving it only for when I really felt hungry.
Walk everywhere you can on campus.
One of the easiest things you can do to maintain a healthy lifestyle in college is to walk everywhere you can on campus.
I went to college in the middle of a big city, but we had our own distinct campus that was actually not very large — about 1 mile by 1.5 miles. You could easily walk from one side of campus to the other in under 30 minutes.
Because of this, I walked everywhere. We had a bus and trolley system, but I didn’t see the point in taking that since nothing was that far away.
You might go to college on a larger campus where walking everywhere is impractical, but in that case, I would encourage you to get a bike!
Staying active as you make your way around campus throughout the day is one of the easiest ways to get exercise while in college.
Drink lots of water (and not a lot of other beverages!)
You probably know you should be drinking at least 64 ounces of water per day, but I cannot emphasize enough how important this really is!
Drinking lots of water helps you maintain your weight. You should also avoid drinking much of any other beverages. That fancy drink from Starbucks or that sugar-filled “healthy” juice you grab before class is actually full of calories.
I stuck to drinking only water as much as possible during college, although I have to admit I had a weakness for Diet Coke too. (Not saying you should drink soda, but at least swap out regular soda for diet soda if you choose to drink it!)
Also, this goes for alcohol. There are MANY benefits to limiting how much you drink or avoiding alcohol entirely, not just related to weight.
If you do choose to drink, do so in moderation.
Go to the gym, take fitness classes, or join a club/intramural sport.
I’ve never actually done sports or enjoyed working out, and that did not change for me during college. But I still stayed active by walking a TON and continuing ballet classes, the one physical activity I did during high school.
If you played sports in high school, you can still stay active in college by joining a club or intramural sports team. You don’t have to be really good to join these teams and they are less pressure and commitment than being on an actual college sports team.
You can also take advantage of free/heavily discounted gym access and fitness classes.
Most colleges have a campus gym and rec center where you can work out for free, and possibly even take free fitness classes like yoga, Pilates, HIIT, etc.
If it’s not free, it will likely be extremely discounted for students, making this an affordable way to stay in shape during your freshman year.
Create healthy routines for yourself.
What do I mean when I say create healthy routines for yourself? A few different things!
First of all, try to develop a healthy sleep schedule. I’m someone who has always needed a solid eight hours of sleep a night to function and I don’t do well when I’m sleep-deprived. So I prioritized sticking to my sleep schedule in college. Getting enough sleep and sticking to a sleep routine regulates your body and makes you less likely to gain weight.
You can also develop a healthy evening routine to get you ready for sleep and a morning routine to start your day off on the right note.
Additionally, it’s important to stick to a healthy eating routine. Don’t skip breakfast (or any other meal) and have consistent mealtimes for yourself.
All of this will help you avoid gaining weight by regulating your body.
Develop healthy coping mechanisms.
Finally, it’s important to develop healthy coping mechanisms. The transition to college can be a stressful one, and it’s easy to slide into unhealthy methods of coping.
One of those can be stress-eating. You might find yourself staying up late to cram for an exam the next morning, then rewarding yourself with a 2 AM meal of fast food. Or you might find yourself being stressed out after class and going to the dining hall and filling up your plate multiple times with your favorite comfort food. Or after a long day, you might lay in bed watching Netflix and mindlessly snacking.
All of these are examples of unhealthy food-related coping mechanisms. You want to develop healthy ways to deal with stress instead.
Rather than defaulting to food, go for a walk outside and listen to your favorite podcast instead. Or put on some music and dance like no one is watching. Or sit down and journal about it.
There are lots of ways to cope with the stress of college that don’t involve food!
Avoiding the Freshman 15
This post showed you tips for how to avoid the freshman 15.
You don’t have to gain weight in your first year of college (or at any point in college!) as long as you maintain healthy habits.
These are the specifics things that worked for me that will hopefully help you too!
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