Fending off The Freshman Fifteen...

For those in college, or those quickly approaching it, beware!!! The Freshman Fifteen - the bane of college calorie counters everywhere - is ready to take a new group of victims on campuses nationwide this fall!

For those who have felt the pain of the 15lbs of cafeteria food, hanging out in the dorm, not having your highschool extracurriculars, and just being too darned lazy to get out and about, join me in losing that weight! :) As an upcoming junior in college, i'm still waging war against the last 10lbs - who's with me?!?

*EDIT*

August 4th, 2008

To anyone just seeing this topic, please know that you're still welcome to join us! There are voluntary weigh-ins each Wednesday if you're interested. Whether you're headed to college, in it, or leaving it we're happy to have you! :D

Hi everyone!

I just joined this site today.  I am 22 and in grad school.  I did marathons and triathlons for my first 3 years in college and never had a weight problem (I just thought I did...)  Now the weight has snuck up on me and I'm ready to lose it!  I exercise every morning and eat pretty healthy, but my problem is late night eating.  Anyway, I am so excited to join this thread!  Here are my stats:

Age: 22

Height: 5"3

Weight: 178

Goal weight: 120

Thanks guys!

Lauren

Welcome to our group! I was just wondering, how long did it take you to train for a marathon? I'm going to school in boston next year and I'd like to be able to run the boston marathon....I don't care about speed, I just want to be able to finish. However - right now I can only run a 5k! How did you train? Give me advice :)

Hey Lauren :).

ugh i just had an AWFUL night.

first I had hardly any sleep due to the fact that I went to this nightclub and drank a whoolee lot of tequilla. Then today I had a massive binge, and currently I feel DISGUSTED.

I had one chip, then two, and then i finished half the bag a long with other snacks.

Anyways just thought I'd share that

P.S. Hey Lauren!! I was the same weight as you when I started, and my goal weight is also 120. Good luck, you can definately do it!

Hi guys!

Thanks for the welcome!

The Boston Marathon is unique in that you have to qualify for it with a speed of 3 hours and 30 minutes which is reeeally fast.  I ran mine in 4 hours and 17 minutes.  It took 16 weeks of actual training and 4 weeks of pre-training.   I used a book called "The Non-Runners Guide to a Marathon".  It is amazing and has GREAT advice plus training plans!  You could definitely do a marathon!!

Lauren - Welcome to the group :D If you need any help or advice with your weightloss, we're all here to support one another :) Its great that you already exercise! That'll make things a lot easier. My best tip with the late-night snacking... I just make myself go to bed when I feel it coming on. Or I brush my teeth. Nothing tastes as good right after you brush your teeth, lol. Best of luck to you :) You ran marathons and triathalons? Hats off to you! I'd be hard pressed to manage that, hehe. Dieting will seem like nothing with that kind of willpower! If you are interested, we hold weigh-ins every Wednesday, and we'd love to have you participate!

Angie - we all have our off nights... just don't let it get you too down. At this point, its said and done, and you just have to move forward! Drink lots of water to get the retained stuff out of your system from the alcohol and see if you can't work in some extra exercise this week :) You just have to keep your chin up and start a new day!

Lea/Carrie/Julie - Hope you guys had a great weekend! Sorry I haven't been around much... went out of town to visit the boyfriend and my grandmother. I had a blast though :) Taught my uncle's standard poodle how to play frisbee! (That was a good workout! lol) All of the hospital stuff came up clear and they still don't know what's wrong with me... in the mean time, I'm sworn off of sodas by the doctor... which is probably good for me anyway :) (Too bad about the withdrawl - UGH.)

I survived the ticks! People were showing me their bites and talked about them all the time, but I didn't see any of the buggers... lots of mosquitos and other bugs though, so I'm nice and itchy. I figure it was a step in the right direction!

I definitely had a funny experience... well, part funny, and part stupid. I seem to be pretty sensitive to certain foods and my stomach bloats in a major way if I eat something I shouldn't. Anyways, we had a bonfire, and of course I had to roast hot dogs and marshmallows. I had 7 or 8 marshmallows before feeling sick of the gooey sweetness, went inside to shower, and just gaped at my bulging belly. I actually could have passed for a pregnant woman. It would be an oddly shaped baby, more box-shaped than balloon, but still. It was out there big time, and I couldn't suck it in haha. I showed my boyfriend and made a mean joke (looked pregnant... you do the math), and then it turned into a big conversation about my dumb body image. After I made the joke, I couldn't hide the fact that it really bothered me. I felt pretty awful about having a huge tummy. So he was rightly concerned about a negative image that I have and can't figure out why I feel the need to get down to 125. He's supportive of the healthy lifestyle, but not me buying into some ideal that I can't even justify.

Do any of you sometimes feel like you get caught up in measuring success by the scale? I know that these are vanity pounds. I won't be any "healthier" at 125. I'll be at an 18 or 19 on the BMI, which is low and a stupid thing to want. I wouldn't recommend it to anyone else, so why am I choosing that as a goal? I've adjusted my goal weight to 130 as a compromise between where I am now and where I originally wanted to be. I'd like to be fit, which I think I can pretty much say I am... bah sorry for bogging down our thread with this.

Oh another note, yay for Monday!

So the barium went okay? Did you find the test... easy to swallow? Oh nothing like a little cheesy humour to start your week. Do you mean you're afraid of the caffeine withdrawal? Or just... sugary goodness withdrawal? And Carrie, how was the show?

Howdy to Lauren and Angie, great to have a couple additions. I admire the mental strength of anyone who can run a marathon... Running for 30 minutes tends to drive me nuts. They say it's a mental sport and I can definitely understand why! 4 hours blows my mind. And Angie, you're a young woman and are going to have nights of partying and things you probably won't be proud of come weigh-in day. But it's all about moderation! You knew it was coming, and yeah, hangovers do seem to cause junkie binges. But so long as it's the exception and not the norm, you're in the clear. Like Heather said, drink up some of the elixir of life, H20. And yes, the wit just keeps coming...

So matt, about weights... is it normal to have faster rates of improvement with some muscles as opposed to others? I feel like my glutes and quads are just eating up the training and thrive with more intensity, while the biceps and triceps seem much slower to accept the increase in weight. Is it as simple as being the size of muscle? Should I change up the arm exercises and see results that way? I feel like the legs are still benefitting from my routine and there are no stalls there. But the silly arms.

Hey everyone!  My horse show went pretty well, except yesterday I had to show in the rain, which is miserable!!  Only two classes though, so it wasn't bad.  I'm really glad I did it because it will probably be the last time I ever get to show my horse.  Between me and the other girl showing my horse, we ended up with fifteen ribbons, and that doesn't even count the five or so classes that she won money instead of a ribbon!!  I won three classes, and it's funny because they were all classes where I had to do a pattern.  I used to be kind of bad at those classes, but the girl who leases my horse practices patterns with him every day, so now he's a pro :)!!  Haha.  She has worked really really hard and improved a ton from when she first started with my horse, so I'm really glad that she had such a good experience this weekend.  

This weekend I was out in the sun and on my feet or riding for about 11 hours Saturday and Sunday, and I barely had time to eat.  Saturday I had to eat a bowl of cereal before bed just to come within 100 calories of my limit, and yesterday I had pizza for dinner and only went over by about 50 calories.  So why does the scale show almost a two pound gain this morning?  Should that go away by Wednesday?

Angie, I agree with Heather and Julie.  You're allowed to have some nights like that.  As long as you don't make it a habit, don't worry about it.  Today's a new day :).

Heather, sounds like you had a fun weekend!  I'm glad the hospital stuff came up clear, but do you have to go back for more tests now?

Julie, I'm glad you survived the ticks :)!  Sometimes I feel like all this weight loss stuff teaches us to be pretty critical of ourselves.  Also, I think it's like, I worked so hard to get this far, shouldn't I have the absolute best body that I can have?  It's great though that you realized that your original goal isn't the healthiest, and that you compromised with yourself.  That's awesome that you can say that you're fit - I wish that I could :)!

Aww, Julie, you never have to feel like you're "Bogging down the thread" with stuff like that! If it really made you feel that bad, then I'm glad he talked to you about it. Sometimes, we get so hard on ourselves we lose track of what we were trying to do in the first place... and I think more important than the numbers on the scale is the energy that we feel and the favor that we are doing our bodies by becoming healthier. :)

I went swimming at a friend's house last week and for the first time in a looooooooong time I was ecstatic to get to wear my bikini. Wow - never thought I'd feel that way. It was just she and I there swimming, but I felt so proud of myself! Its all about getting that feeling :) Like you've really accomplished something and that you're better for it! If you will be healthy and happy and get that feeling at 130, then I say you are, by all means, right to change it to 130 :)

Anywho, yes, the barium was not nearly as bad as I thought it would be. It was like drinking vanilla-flavored double whole milk at room temperature. So not unbearable, but not particularly pleasant. And they kept having me hold it in my mouth and then telling me when I could swallow. Eww. lol. Since they couldn't find anything, they're telling me to lay off fatty/greasy foods (which I wasn't eating anyway...) and softdrinks. They also want me to take it easy on the exercise for a little while. Lol, I'm missing the caffieneeeeee... I get those horrible migrane/headaches. A week or so, and I ought to be better. Its probably a good thing I'm getting off of the soda. I drink hideously low amounts of liquid. Maybe 40-50oz/day. I'm going to start trying to get closer to 100 and all water. (maybe the occaional tea :D)

Glad to hear none of the little blood sucking parasites ticked you off during your trip. That would bite. :P

haha. XD

Hi Carrie! :)

Glad everything went well - you must have a pretty rockin' awesome horse :D I think they're such gorgeous animals, but I've never really spent time with them. Congrats on you and he doing so well! :)

You know, I had that same thing happen last week. I was exercising a LOT and sticking to my 1200cal and I went up like 2.5lbs! I thought that maybe it was retained water from the exercise and my muscles healing, but when it didn't go away, I didn't know what to do. I cycled my calories (sort of - just went off the diet, but still watched my portions. I 'm sure I was getting a lot more calorie-wise) and this morning, I was down half a pound... IDK if it worked or if my scale was being weird (its old) or what. If it doesn't go down by Wednesday, maybe try the calorie cycle thing?

As far as the tests go, i'm still waiting on the sit-down results with my doctor. The people giving me the tests were telling me that they didn't see anything and the blood work isn't back yet. I'm thinking maybe its a muscle problem rather than organ-related, but IDK if they could have seen that on the Upper GI or not. I'll just have to cross my fingers and hope!

I ate WAY more then I wanted to at my parties but I had a blast so who cares :)

Today I'm not doing anything so I ate a bowl of kashi golean for breakfast with skim milk, and for lunch I made a tuna sandwich with my own tuna recipe. It's really good and low cal.

1 can of water based tuna

2 egg whites, fried then chopped into the tuna

1 tsp grey poupon

a couple squirts of lemon juice

1/4 onion chopped up

Mix it all together and then you have enough filling for two sandwiches for a little more then 100 cal. I ate that with 2 slices whole wheat bread and a light and fit yogurt (50 cal). Tonight I'm meeting some friends for dinner at a japanese restauraunt and I'll either get sashimi with brown rice or chicken teriyaki with brown rice. Either way they should be under 500 cal (even less if I get the sashimi). I'll eat a piece of fruit in the middle of the day for a snack and I should have a really good, A+ 1200 calorie day. I didn't go to the gym so I think this will be a good day to let my body get used to the healthy eating it's used to and let my muscles recover. Because I was going to parties and I knew I'd be eating a TON I also decided to excersize a ton. Some days I burned up to 3000 calories, I ate almost all of it I think but because I excersized so much I think I kept the overall damage to a minimum. Hopefully by wednesday I didn't gain any.

Julie: I decided to work on toning more too since my body seems to want to stay at 115. The lowest I've ever been since puberty was 113.8 and that was only because I got mono and couldn't eat. I guess now I'll just work on losing body fat instead of just weight. I still think I could maybe lose at least 5 lbs but if it won't happen for me then I just need to find the way to make my body look the way I want.

hi all! i'm 21, and will be going for exchange this fall semester to a university in US. maintaining my weight isn't really a big problem where i am right now (my mum cooks pretty healthily and i usually don't eat fast food), but i'm so worried that when i'm over in the states, i'll be binging on junk--convenience, social reasons, and because i miss my family (i'm a social and emotional eater)... so i guess i'll hang around here, to hold myself accountable to healthy eating and all once i fly off!

I now weigh 187.5 which is .5 away from the lowest I've been in a long time. Here's to hoping for 186 by the end of this week!

I cheated and weighed in this morning! The numbers are finally going down instead of up! I'm 114.6 today! By next week I want to be under 114.

Lea, I'm glad you had fun at your parties, and congrats on losing weight!  You too, Matt.

Doe, which university are you going to?  At least you already know what you should and shouldn't eat.  Before I left for school, I didn't really know how to eat right (I thought I did, though).

I weighed in this morning too...although I weigh myself almost every morning, lol.  I'm just one of those people who has to know, whether the news is good or bad.  Like whenever I take a test, even if I think I did poorly, I just want to know what I got so I can forget about it and move on.  Anyways, the numbers are starting to go down, although I'm still more than a pound above where I was last week :/.  Friday I will officially have been on CC for a month, and if I'm not down at least four pounds by then (from where I started), I'm going to be a little frustrated.

Matt and Laf congrats on your weightloss!!
Looks like you guys had a good week :) keep it up!

Carrie, don't be frustrated that you are not down four pounds. The first month generally tends to be the hardest month. It takes 21 days to form a habit. Therefore, after 21 days has passed eating healthy and excercising will become like a habit and it will slowly become easier and easier.
You've made a big step to start CC and change your lifestyle. So on friday, congratulate yourself on this new lifestyle rather then looking at the scale!
Although I am sure you will be close to those four pounds!

Harris, hopefully the tests go well!!! We're all crossing our fingers for you :)

Thanks Angie!  You're right; I think this is getting easier for me.  When I was at school it was pretty hard for me to stick to my 1600 calories, but tonight I was at 1425 and I wasn't even very hungry!  The lifestyle change thing is a really good way to look at it, too.  I feel like I've learned a lot about how to eat and how to take care of myself just by reading the forums on here.  All you guys are a wealth of information. 

It's been a little hard for me since I've been home because my mom doesn't make dinner very often (as in, twice in the last 11 days).  It's usually pizza, fast food, or oh, we're going to x-y-z so we'll just eat there.  Today I finally told her that she's making it really hard for me to eat healthy, and then later she said that we should go to the store and get stuff that I can eat when she's not making dinner (which is most of the time).  So that's good.

Just out of curiosity, do you guys feel hungry very often?  I feel like I'm not much more hungry than before I started dieting, and it kind of makes me wonder if I'm doing everything right.  I realize that it's more about eating healthier things and portion sizes and stuff, but I guess since I've always associated dieting with being hungry, part of me still feels like something's wrong...

carrie: i'm going to university of illinois at urbana champaign. (: and yes, i actually feel hungry more often after i started dieting. (but i also started eating more and smaller meals, and i usually feel hungry only when it's approaching mealtimes.) i do have occasional cravings for sugary stuff though! but i think that there's nothing wrong with not feeling hungry CCing. technically, it shouldn't be a diet (it only is when you're in the weight loss phase), but a lifestyle! something that you can keep to without going into cycles of restricting and rebounding. you're probably doing great! (:

I'm gonna agree with doe on that one. After reading a little about how our bodies and cravings work, it seems that eating certain foods leadsto eating more and more. For example, sweet goodies (particularly artificially flavoured goodies) don't contain much nutritional value, so your body feels like it should eat more of them to satisfy it. So if you have a bite of a nasty wafer cookie when you weren't hungry to begin with (I only say nasty because I compulsively ate them last night =P), you might feel a sudden craving to eat more of it. I don't remember the technical reasoning behind it, but it does have to do with something being released in your brain to tell you you're full... But when you start eating more fibre, proteins, and healthy fats, your body is actually getting the nutrition it craves and won't constantly be starving. I think that's why restrictive diets are so depressing... if you only eat fat-free things, you'll be miserable! Woot lifestyles.

I weighed in this morning, and I'm at just under 131.8. Really wasn't expecting that, but it may have to do with the extra food I've been eating. I ate at maintenance twice on the weekend, and over-maintenance yesterday. The other days I had a 400-700 deficit. I weighed myself on the weekend and thought it was a mistake, because it was a different scale and said just over 130. Then I ate a lot of salt and didn't drink much water, went to 134 on Monday, and now I'm back. Gotta love the ups and downs! I'm more intrigued by it now than anything... So long as the number is below 135, my reaction is very positive.

I didn't do as much exercise this past week. My body was tired and I took it easy. Well, I did go to the gym for an extra day, but decided to cut out my nightly walks. This week I'm probably going to keep it the same-ish, with some sprints-jog on Saturday and a leisurely walk on Sunday. I still feel a bit sluggish so I don't mind taking Thursday and Friday as "active rest" days.

I had a terrible/great day yesterday! All day I was active and healthy, but at night of course I went to a party. 5 or 6 shots later and a BUNCH of food I went well over maintenance, even though I burned about an extra 1000 calories through activity. At least I was doing shots and not drinking beers though. Oh well, I'm going to a party tonight too so I guess I won't drink. I weighed in at 114.6 though which is very good!