Even Men Face College Weight Gain

by Anonymous

I'm a 19 year old male sophomore in college, living on campus and trying to survive by eating the campus food.

I've gained weight steadily since I came here, and have had trouble losing it.

I've been browsing through your site for a while now and it's proved pretty useful.

I have particular questions about college dorm eating.

Do you have any suggestions for a college student? Also, any motivational books/sites/tips to get back into shape? I know my weight isn't bad, but it still needs to be fixed so I can go enjoy the things I want to do.

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Dorm life certainly poses unique challenges! It's great to hear you want to get a handle on things NOW, before they get any worse.

I have a few suggestions for you.

First, establish some structure...set up an eating schedule. I'm guessing eating is haphazard because your schedule is different day to day and you grab whatever you can, whenever you can. By setting up a planned breakfast, lunch, dinner and planned snacks in between, eating becomes intentional, not accidental.

If you have access to a car or bus system, I'd suggest you grocery shop 1x/wk.

Stock your dorm refrigerator with things like nonfat/lowfat yogurt, cottage cheese, part skim mozzarella string cheese, fruit, deli turkey slices, loaf of whole wheat bread, instant oatmeal, maybe protein powder to make quick shakes, etc. (Hopefully you like some of these!)

This way you can prepare some of your meals/snacks in your room and/or carry some with you.

Also think about bringing some of the healthier things from the cafeteria back to your room when you're able (mini boxes of cereal, packets of instant oatmeal, hard boiled egg, individual containers of peanut butter, fruit).

This way, you'll have healthy foods on hand when you're hungry and when your friends are munching away on junk while studying!

Also a tip about the cafeteria: Don't get a tray...toooooo many things can fit on it!! Simply get your plate and sit down. If you're still hungry when you're done you can always go back...but it will make you think twice about what you're doing.

Those are a few small tips and I hope they help.

For detailed information on college weight gain, see
How to Avoid Freshman Weight Gain

As far as getting back into shape, I'd recommend thinking about what exercise or sport you ENJOY doing, so that you stick with it...for the rest of your life :) As a former fitness competitor, I can tell you that ANY program works...as long as you're consistent.

Let me know if I can be of further help.

In Health,

Suzette Kroll, RD