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dieting in college
hi, everyone. i'm 5'6" and 141 pounds. i'm currently in college and my eating habits have gotten terrible! now, we all know that dieting in school is nearly impossible. but are there any ways that i could maybe cut down my eating habits and what fitness i should do at the gym to lose weight? i literally gained the "freshman 15" here and i'd love to lose it. also, i would like to lose weight before the summer if possible. Thank you so much in advance.
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Want to answer more questions in the Health & Fitness category?
Maybe give some free advice about: Fitness?
It will be good for you to establish good habits as a young adult in nutrition and fitness. You need to establish a healthy lifestyle that you can take with you throughout your adult life. Read up as much as you can on nutrition and try to build a good foundation of knowledge for yourself. Learn about different food groups and portion sizes. Some good resources are www.LiveStrong.com or www.SparkPeople.com. Both sites have great articles about nutrition and fitness and a tool for tracking your daily foods and exercise. It's my personal opinion that you should pick physical activities that you enjoy, because that not only motivates you to do them but makes exercise fun.
There is a simple formula for losing weight. You have to expend more calories than you consume. Livestrong.com (via TheDailyPlate.com) has a calculator that will let you put in how much you weigh and how much you want to lose per week and tell you how many calories you should eat per day. When you enter exercise, it accounts for that and allows you to eat more calories. Tracking your daily calories is a good way to get acquainted with how much and just what you should be eating. Important things to consider is that, as a woman, you should never eat less than 1200 calories a day. Eating too few calories will slow down your metabolism and is counter-productive.
Whatever you do, don't follow fad diets. They are a waste of money, time, and effort, and most of them aren't very good for you. Also, a key factor to your success is having some kind of support system. Even if it's just one friend you can talk to about it, you should find a means of support.
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What kind of options are available at your school?
If it's anything like mine was, there's a lot of fried food, pasta and pizza.
Somehow I managed to lose 15 pounds in my freshman year. Here's how:
1. Buy your own breakfast outside of the school. Keep cereal or muffins on hand so that you're not tempted by fatty breakfasts every day.
2. Load up on fruit. One of my favourite lunches was peach slices with cottage cheese. If there isn't fruit available, buy your own. It's worth the extra expense.
3. The portions at my school were huge. If you can get your food take-out, then eat half and save it for another meal.
4. Is there a place that does pitas or wraps? That's mostly what I lived on. If you can get them, load them up with vegetables.
5. I don't know if you drink, but if you do, watch what and how much. Stop drinking beer and sugary coolers. Try rum or vodka and diet coke, instead.
6. Walk everywhere you go. Walk to the grocery store. Do random long walks on weekends.
7. Try either buying or downloading a yoga video. Chances are, there are probably other girls you know who would enjoy doing it with you.
8. If you do go to the gym, ignore the reclining bicycles. You know why it's so much more comfortable than other exercise machines? Because you don't get as good of a workout. My personal favourite is the elliptical. Not only do you work out your legs, you also work your arms, so you get quicker results.
Good luck!
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