How can I avoid the freshman fifteen?

November 20, 2007 6:43 PM

I'm well on my way to the freshman fifteen....help!

Alright. I'm not fat. Really, I'm not. I'm 5'11. When I started college I was about 155. Now I'm about twelve pounds heavier. It wasn't all unhealthy weight gain, though. Over the summer I was really stressed about some stuff, and I was skipping a lot of meals and whatnot. My college has an unlimited meal plan, so overeating is exceptionally easy. I have the motivation to stay healthy and keep a good weight, I'm just not sure how. The obvious answer is, of course, burn more calories than you consume, but there are a lot of weighs (har har) to do that. My questions:

What is the ideal weight for a 5'11 male college-age student? I'm fairly active, so some of it is muscle, but I'm no gym rat.

What is the best exercise routine for my purposes? I'm not looking to bench 350, I'd like to lose a bit of weight and ideally gain a bit of muscle, but I don't need to bulk up or anything. I have access to: cycling, swimming, a gym with all the standard stuff. Jogging, of course.

The one thing I do know how to do is eat healthy. Less brown, more green, orange, yellow, etc. Cut down or eliminate desert. Drink water, not coke. Just takes a bit of self-control.

My body thanks you for your help.

posted by Autarky to health & fitness (14 comments total)

the biggest problem with exercise routines is actually doing them, so pick something you can enjoy. This is highly personal. I found I loved swimming and hated lifting weights, so I stuck mainly with swimming. It helps if you can go with a buddy so you motivate each other to show up. Intramural sports are great, too, if it's something high-energy - you'll get a great workout one night a week and you will be extremely motivated to actually show up. Also, they're fun and a great way to meet people.

I really like these sites too:
The No 'S' Diet
The Shovelglove
posted by PercussivePaul at 6:50 PM on November 20, 2007

I assume you live on campus. If your college campus is large and has a variety of places to eat, try to always eat some place very far from where you are, so as to force yourself to get some walking done.

A few other on-campus eating tips: Occasionally try the vegetarian options; at many schools they are better anyway. Fill and drink a water bottle during each class period; it will help keep you full and staying hydrated is good for you. Make a point of getting up and walking to breakfast, but keep breakfast light (no sausage, bacon, fried eggs, or pancakes with butter & syrup). Switch to skim milk.

Also, if at all possible, move to a non-unlimited meal plan. They only encourage overeating, in my opinion.
posted by jedicus at 7:00 PM on November 20, 2007

In terms of work vs. reward, in my experience, nothing beats CrossFit. To learn what they're about, go here. Their workouts seriously bust your balls, which may not be what you're looking for, but they don't take that much time and you get some incredible results. Be careful, depending on your fitness level, you may want to tone down the workouts.

You can get away with practically stuffing your body with garbage when you're young, but starting eating right early makes it easy later. You sound like you've got a good lead in that direction. That said, make sure make sure you're still meeting your RDA for beer and women.
posted by christonabike at 7:02 PM on November 20, 2007 [1 favorite]

Just get active. Find friends who want to go do active stuff and it'll become a routine: whether lifting, running outside, raquetball, basketball, camping, rock climbing or WHATEVER. And you have to remember that all that free food at the dining hall is NOT healthy. Especially anything they have for you at late night, you're not cooking it, you have ZERO idea what goes into it...

/reminices: Oh to be able to have those nights of mozzarella sticks, nacho cheese and buffalo wings (together) again...
posted by stratastar at 7:02 PM on November 20, 2007

I'm glad you seem to realize that your weight isn't the most important thing that you need to think about. What matters is that you like the way you feel and look.

That being said, if you want to get to a higher level of general physical preparedness you should look at functional fitness training such as CrossFit. The workouts are relatively short, and very intense. You'll use sensible, often overlooked exercises like burpees, kettlebell swings, medicine ball work and more. You can learn about the exercises at the website or visit a crossfit gym near your college if there's one (listed on right sidebar of the page).

It is always varied, and you'll never do boring (and to me pointless) stuff like bicep curls. If you concentrate on fitness, changes in body composition will follow.

If you're not experienced using free weights (which are much better to use than machines), I highly recommend stumptuous.com. It is a site devoted to weight training for women but the info is great for both sexes.

Full disclosure: I'm CrossFit certified and train at CrossFit Portland four times a week. Totally biased!
posted by ArcAm at 7:06 PM on November 20, 2007

I could go into a whole mess of ideas about exercise regimens, but really, to avoid the freshman fifteen all you have to do is whatever you were doing before. It's the people who go to college and *don't* realize that they're overeating and *don't* realize how fattening the cafeteria food is and have no grip on a myriad of other lifestyle changes/choices that gain the weight. You sound like you have a grip, know exactly what goes into a healthy diet, and you know that it takes self control. And the way you said it sounds like you have it. :)

So try to eat like you did back home (or better). I know college food sucks (even though I crave it to this day) but there is always the least evil choice. Watch the caloric intake, because it comes down to calories in, calories out, as you know.

And don't drink a six pack of beer every night. :) Them's some empty calories.

As for the physical part: did you do anything before college? Are you more sedentary now? If both answers are no, then you really don't have to change your physical activity unless you want to. (Of course, exercise is good for everybody and I recommend it!) I happen to be a big fan of running because it requires nothing special but a good pair of shoes. Get some freeweights and keep them in your room (or go to a gym, but to me, closer is better) and give the upper body some muscle with those. If you prefer cycling or swimming over running, then do whatever you're most inclined to do.

It's surprisingly uncomplicated to stay in decent shape if you don't overeat and if you just stay regular with whatever your exercise choice is. That is, you don't need some lengthy cross training regimen (unless you want one). Just running a few miles and literally 10 minutes of freeweights a few days a week will do you fine for a regular staying-in-shape goal. Alternately you could join sports/athletic teams ... again this depends on your preferences.

Oh, normal weight for your age/height? I don't know, but I know you're not overweight. At your age "lanky" is a common body type, and that's what 5'11" 155 sounds like to me. So you're going to start widening up at some point regardless of how healthy you are ... that's just what happens with men. :) (I'm not talking about getting fat with age, just gaining girth.)

Good luck!
posted by iguanapolitico at 8:11 PM on November 20, 2007

i lost weight as soon as i went off my college's meal plan.
posted by violetk at 8:18 PM on November 20, 2007 [1 favorite]

One of the easiest ways to be active is not to make exercise into "work", but just work it into your everyday routine.

Example: do you drive around campus or do you use a bike some/all of the time? One of the easiest ways to burn "loose" calories (and save mad amounts of cash) is to simply convert as many driving miles to bike or ped miles as you possibly can.

I also got together with some friends / students from the local campus and we started an Ultimate Frisbee group. It was great fun / exercise and it also led to other social fun stuff.
posted by lonefrontranger at 8:25 PM on November 20, 2007

I work out regularly at the gym because I like to, but I think you can get a really big bang for your buck just by walking or biking whenever you can, taking stairs instead of elevators and escalators, etc. Also, it seems to me that, for different reasons, lack of sleep and stress may both cause people to eat more, so try to get plenty of rest and to find other ways to manage stress instead of using eating as a stress reliever. Don't eat too much late at night, especially close to bed time. Another idea is you can set up a quota system for yourself to avoid overindulging in the culinary temptations that jump out at you from every corner of every cafeteria, market, coffee shop, and restaurant you venture near.
posted by Dansaman at 9:07 PM on November 20, 2007

My few secrets for not pudging out (too much) during college were as follows:

Ultimate Frisbee. (I had friends who played once a week and I would run so hard that it killed me, but I loved it.)

No eating after 8pm. (this is hard normally, and nearly impossible during those high-stress times like finals, but keeping it as a general rule can keep you from late-night bad eating like ice cream and Taco Bell)

Walk everywhere you can. (I went to school in a small town, and everything was within walking distance. It might've taken 20 minutes instead of 2, but walking, especially on nice days, can be excellent.)

Get off the meal plan. (Nearly everything served in campus food establishments is bad for you. For every bowl of delicious and low-fat vegan chili, there are twelve bowls of macaroni and cheese made with pure butter and cream cheese. See if you can convert meal credits to groceries at a campus grocery store and cook your own food. It's easier to eat healthy if you know what you're eating. It's not always the most practical, though.)

Friends. (Get some friends to go into this with you. It's way harder to be healthy if you get three people knocking on your door at 1am asking you to come with them to get a chicken grease-adilla and a milkshake.)

[on preview: yeah, what other people have said.]
posted by sleeping bear at 11:15 PM on November 20, 2007

As a long term investment, if you decide to start other sports, try to keep running/jogging too. Long distance running really teaches you to know and love your body, but the beginning is a lot less painful if supporting structures are already toughened up a bit. As a young person you can increase your distance at a silly rate, and after you've ran a marathon, you'll know you're a tough cookie for the next 10 years.
posted by Free word order! at 2:07 AM on November 21, 2007

You need something that works with your lifestyle. Consider one of the low-carb plans that allow ad-lib eating but avoid overeating certain trigger foods. This may work best for a college student. I'm thinking:

TNT Diet (includes an exercise plan)
Good Calories, Bad Calories (background reading)

Sample diet: breakfast is eggs and breakfast meat, lunch is chicken over salad, dinner is steak/meat/fish and veg - all made by your cafeteria. Water, black coffee +/- cream, avoid beer but wine OK. Maybe a protein shake for an afternoon snack.

Sample workout: if you don't want a routine, sign up for some sport. Maybe squash? Add three whole-body weight workouts to your week and you will be at least in the 80th percentile exercise-wise.
posted by objdoc at 2:10 AM on November 21, 2007

1) Talk to a nutritionist at the health center. See if you can either work to convince the dining halls to offer healthier choices (dining hall staff are, in my experience, desperate for actual helpful input rather than just complaints) or find a way to get access to a kitchen and some money back from your meal plan to get groceries.

2) Are there campus shuttles/buses? Stop using them.

3) In the dining hall: Salad. Fruit and vegetables. Carrot sticks and celery. Water instead of soda. Nonfat milk. Be as vegetarian as you can. Go for foods with fewer/no additives/chemicals/flavoring enhancers. Ask to see nutritional info - they'll have it available but you might have to go to a separate office to go through things.

4) Don't keep any food, of any kind, in your room: neither Goldfish crackers nor healthy soy-crisps or something. Hungry at two am? Either tough it out for a few hours until breakfast or go forage for wild greens.
posted by mdonley at 3:16 AM on November 21, 2007

If you have access to swimming, then you need to make that part of your morning (or at least daily) ritual, as many days of the week as possible. Your appetite will increase but you'll lose the weight and feel like you're earning your keep as a human.
posted by hermitosis at 6:13 AM on November 21, 2007 [1 favorite]