How To Lose Weight In College

Losing weight in college is just a matter of making better choices. It's easy to gain weight in college. The freshman 15 is no joke. It happens to almost everyone. Late nights studying for exams can cause you to eat way more calories than usual. Excess stress and social pressure can cause you to drink alcohol and eat extra food. This adds up over time. I'm going to give you some tips for how to lose weight in college.

Healthy Meals

In college it can be hard to find or make healthy meals. If you want to lose weight in college, it's important to replace some of your meals with healthier options. It's likely that you live in a dorm, so you probably have a microwave.

Microwave foods tend to be unhealthy, but you can find dinners by Lean Cuisine and other healthy options. The best thing to do is check the calories of the meal. For one meal, you shouldn't have more than 400-500 calories if you are trying to lose weight. So check those calories and make sure that what you are eating isn't going overboard.

Cafeteria

Many of you probably have a meal plan provided by the school which lets you eat in the cafeteria. That's where a lot of the extra weight comes from. Eating in the cafeteria is like eating at an all you can eat buffet, every meal, every day. Think about that for a second. That's a lot of potential to gain weight.

The best thing you can do is to limit your potions. It can be really hard with all that food available to you. Limit yourself to one plate of food and make sure you have a balance of nutrients on your plate. Have vegetables, protein, etc. Watch your serving sizes of the more fatty and carby types of foods.

If you have trouble resisting a second plate of food, then make yourself always get a to-go plate. You will be forced to only eat what's in your to-go plate. Fill your to-go plate with healthier foods and watch the portion sizes.

Watch Out For Soda

Sodas can add the extra calories really fast. Avoid sodas and sugary drinks at all costs. Switch to water. You can buy yourself a water bottle that can be refilled and just carry it around everywhere so that you aren't tempted to get any soda. Drink machines are everywhere you look. but if you resist the temptation for long enough, you can break your addiction to soda.

Cooking

Sometimes a dorm will have a communal kitchen. You can use those for cooking healthy meals on a stove. I know it can be rough cooking in a kitchen that is used by everyone else, but if you cook a pot of soup, you could portion it out and freeze them in resealable bowls for later. You could essentially meal prep for the entire week in one night. Having a healthy low calorie soup for dinner would help you with weight loss.

You can also befriend someone who is living off-campus. If they live in a house or apartment, you could ask to use their kitchen for cooking healthy meals.

Drinking

Alcohol is a big reason for the Freshman 15. There is a lot of pressure to party and drink when you are in college. Beware of the calories that come with some of those drinks. Beer will make you gain weight faster than anything. Liquor can be made into low calorie drinks, if you absolutely have to. Be responsible and moderate your drinking while in college. It only causes you to gain weight.

Late Night Snacking

Late night studying leads to late night snacking sometimes. You have to watch your calories if you want to lose weight. Pay attention to portions and how much you are eating. Learn how and when to say no to excess calories.

Here is a little trick I've used: Place an apple on your desk or wherever you are studying. When you get hungry, all you can have is that apple. If you don't want the apple, then you aren't truly hungry. It's a good way to figure out if you truly need the food, or if you are just craving junk foods.

Take Advantage of The Gym

I know that your college has a gym, so you should take advantage of the services there. Make time to go workout at the gym at least 5 days per week. You will be glad you did. There is usually cardio equipment, weight machines, classes, a pool, etc.

Sign up for classes you've never tried before such as spin class, yoga, or kickboxing. Make it a social event where you always go with friends. This will make you feel obligated to go, even when you feel like you don't want to. That can be a good thing because sometimes we think we don't want to do something but we feel so much better after we do it. Visit the sauna as well. It helps with general health and detox.

Smoothies

Buying yourself a blender for your dorm room is a great way to make a meal on the go. You can use frozen fruit, bananas, almond milk, chia seeds, etc. These are all healthy ingredients to put in your smoothies. Look up some popular smoothie recipes. Choosing to have a smoothie in place of a fatty breakfast will help you get rid of that Freshman 15 fast.

One of my favorite smoothies is a pineapple, banana, and berry smoothie.

I hope these tips have inspired you and given you ideas for how to lose weight in college.