Advice for New College Grads – How to Lose The Freshman 15

It can happen in college. It can also happen in high school. It is a dreaded phenomenon that can afflict any student, and have repercussions years after graduation. And it has nothing to do with timed essay questions or complex mathematical equations.

I’m talking about the Freshman 15 – those pesky pounds that seem to magically appear as soon as you start studying. In this article, you’ll find out what causes the weight gain and how to lose these extra pounds.

What Are The Freshman 15?

During the first year of college or high school, many students find themselves gaining significant amounts of weight. Often the Freshman 15 stay on the body for years after college, and are sometimes never lost. While a degree is something to be proud of, those muffin tops and extra belly may not be quite so desired.

15 pounds is actually a rather arbitrary number.  Studies show that the average rate of weight gain in the first year of college is actually closer to 2-4 pounds; in the second year it’s about 3-10 pounds. Only about 5% of students actually gain 15 pounds or more – but regardless of the actual number, weight gain during the first year of school, and the years after, is a common scenario.

What Causes The Freshman 15?

The reasons for this sudden school weight gain include less-than-ideal food options, stress, alcohol, and loss of sleep:

Poor Food Options

When I began college, I personally resorted to the dietary staples of hot dogs, peanut butter, cheap steak, energy drinks, frozen stir fry vegetables – all washed down with generous gulps of beer.

Such poor and inexpensive food choices are a common occurrence, especially during the first year of college when there’s a sudden shift from home-cooked meals to cafeteria and fast food. For many students, the diet becomes irregular, meals get skipped, and food preparation becomes hectic. More meals get eaten either A) from unhealthy cafeteria foods or B) from highly processed foods in packages and containers, since these are perceived as cheaper and more convenient. The result is lots of nutrient-void calories, and subsequent weight gain.

Stress

Stressful situations trigger the body’s “fight or flight” reaction, which can cause surges of hormones such as insulin and cortisol. This can lead to weight gain and resistance to fat loss. When a student is thrown into a new learning environment with unfamiliar surroundings, different friends, and a high workload, the body responds by churning out stress hormones and gaining weight. For my final 3 years of college, I averaged 25 credits each semester, and spent much of that time battling stress, and experiencing the frequent sickness and weight surges that accompanied this stress.

Alcohol

Alcohol, like cafeteria food and fast food, is high in calories and low in nutrients. Not only can a single night of partying easily lead to several thousand excess calories, but the hormonal response to alcohol can be a decrease in fat burning hormones like testosterone and increase in fat storage hormones like cortisol. While a glass of wine is no big deal, a few weeks of beer bongs, margarita mix, and wine coolers can lead to an instant gain of several pounds.

Sleep Loss

In a sleep deprived body, appetite stimulating hormones like ghrelin can run rampant, while appetite stabilizing hormones like leptin are far less active. In addition, dopamine and serotonin levels drop, and the body has a lower reward response to food. This means you feel less full after eating, and have a higher propensity to snack, especially on the wrong foods.

How to Lose The Freshman 15

So what can you do to rescue your body from the Freshman 15, or keep them from piling on in the first place? Here are 4 Quick & Dirty Tips to keep you trim and fit in college:

1. Exercise. No matter how poor your dietary choices are, frequent physical activity will help to stave off at least some of the damage. At least 2 times per week, do The Best Workout for Fat Loss, which involves a series of resistance training exercises, followed by a 30-60 second bout of high intensity cardio. On the days you can’t squeeze in a structured session, instead try quick workouts, which you can read more about in How to Do a 10-Minute Workout. Finally when that’s not an option, try to stand whenever possible, walk or bike to your classes, and avoid sitting for long periods of time.

2. Eat Healthy. Rather than completely re-inventing the wheel, I am going to instead recommend that you check out two episodes from the Nutrition Diva: Healthy Eating Tips for College Kids and More Healthy Eating Tips For College Kids. Both of these articles give you everything you need to know to make the right choices at the cafeteria and on a budget. In addition to these tips, try to drink high amounts of caffeine or energy drinks only when absolutely necessary, such as a series of all-nighters during finals week. If you’re already out of college, able to eat healthy, and want to get rid of the Freshman 15, try rebooting your body by taking 2 months to cut down on all your college staples, such as processed food from packages, starches and refined sugars, alcohol, and caffeine.

3. Control Stress. While a daily yoga routine is probably going to be tough to coordinate with a busy course load, you can make small changes to control stress. During classes, practice breathing deeply through your nose, and then breathing out through slightly pursed lips. When you feel overloaded with homework, try breaking it down into small, achievable portions. And when you experience stressful social situations, try venting to a friend, or simply in your own personal diary. Both can help you from keeping things bottled up and putting your body into stressed out, fat storage mode.  If you’re living a high-stress, post-collegiate life, you may actually have the time to add a weekly or bi-weekly yoga class, which I highly encourage.

4. Optimize Sleep. Read the House Call Doctor’s great episode on getting better sleep. While you will almost never have ideal sleep patterns during busy school life, take advantage of the days that are lighter to catch up on sleep or get an extra nap, and try to avoid partying for multiple days in a row whenever possible. If you’re out of college, catch up on rest and recovery by making every lifestyle change that you can to give your body a couple months of 8-hour-per-night sleep cycles, even if it means cutting out your favorite TV show or social networking time.

Controlling and losing the Freshman 15 is a fight against a new lifestyle with different foods, stress, and poor sleep. Now that you know the 4 biggest contributors to the Freshman 15, you can do what it takes to ensure you don’t end up needing to buy a bigger graduation gown!

If you have more questions about the Freshman 15 and what you can do about it, share them below in Comments and on the Get-Fit Guy Facebook page! 

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