The Best Freshman 15 Fat Loss Tips
Learn everything you need to know about the freshmen 15—from avoiding it to losing it fast.
Ben Greenfield
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The Best Freshman 15 Fat Loss Tips
You know it exists and you fear it: The “freshman 15.” Interestingly, an Ohio State University study showed that the average college student doesn’t fatten up to the feared 15 but actually only gains two to three pounds in their first year. Whether it’s three pounds or fifteen pounds, you probably wonder how you can stop the “freshman 15” from even beginning to creep up on you, or how to get rid of it super quick in case it has actually become part of your waistline. Keep reading to find out more.
Why Does the Freshman 15 Occur?
1. You Flunk Your Food Options
College campuses are notorious for poor and inexpensive cafeteria foods, and college towns are often riddled with fast food restaurants, low quality grocery stores, and venues offering unhealthy eats like nachos and deep fried you-name-its. Cheap and processed foods, like hot dogs, peanut butter, fatty steak, energy drinks, frozen meals, and Top-Ramen, the common staples in a student’s dorm fridge or pantry, compound matters even further. For many students, because of hectic class schedules, late night study sessions, and the many opportunities to party, the diet becomes irregular, meals get skipped, and food preparation becomes the last thing thought about—if even thought about at all. Because of this, the majority of meals get eaten either A) from unhealthy cafeteria foods or B) from highly processed foods in packages and containers—usually passed through two windows. And since these are cheap and convenient foods, they are also cheaply and conveniently pumped full of copious amounts of calorie dense fats and blood sugar spiking low quality ingredients—plus, they are relatively nutrient-void. Pile that combination in your belly and you’re on the fast track to subsequent weight gain.
Dining halls and cafeterias are the biggest culprits here, as they provide a huge variety and endless options of colorful, appetizing foods that are very high in calories: such as pizza, French fries, ice cream, sweetened cakes, fruity yogurts, and much more. When exposed to these “fast food” sources on campus, your brain is hardwired to be far more likely to choose these options over healthier options. One study done at Cornell University showed that 20% of the weight gained by test subjects was due to the fact the students were eating at all-you-can-eat campus cafeterias and dining halls.
2. You’re Under A Lot of Stress
Stressful situations trigger the body’s sympathetic nervous system’s “fight or flight” reaction, which can cause surges of hormones such as insulin and cortisol – both of which can keep you from mobilizing fatty acids for fuel, and also mobilize sugar from your liver. This combo leads to energy fluctuations, weight gain, appetite surges, increased fat storage and resistance to fat loss. When you get thrown into a new living and learning environment with unfamiliar surroundings, an uncomfortable bed, different friends, late nights, and a high study workload, your body responds by churning out even more stress hormones.
One study showed a direct relationship between eating late at night and stress levels in college students, showing that students that had higher levels of stress were more likely to experience weight gain due to their inability to adapt. That study also showed that students who were not able to deal with stress were more likely to turn to late night eating to relieve their stress.
3. You Drink Too Much 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 also the hormonal response to alcohol can cause a decrease in fat-burning hormones like testosterone and an increase in fat storage hormones like cortisol. In this situation, excess fats tend to accumulate around the waist, creating the unhealthy and undesirable “muffin-top” effect.
4. You’re Not Sleeping Enough
In a sleep deprived body, appetite-stimulating hormones like ghrelin and can run rampant, while appetite-stabilizing hormones like leptin are far less active. In addition, dopamine and serotonin levels drop, and the body develops a lower reward response to food. As a result, you may be less full after eating, and and have more cravings to snack, especially on the wrong foods and especially if those foods are frequently available and in front of you. That’s the problem with cafeterias and dining halls – not only do they usually remain open 24 hours a day, but they are also lined with low quality, calorie dense, and processed foods—just calling out to beckon your sleep deprived attention.
So, what should you do to avoid the Freshman 15 to begin with?
1. Keep Up with Exercise
No, I’m not saying that you should skip classes to hit the gym, but you do need to “hack” that student lifestyle to simulate the hunter-gatherer lifestyle as much as possible. Think about strategies such as replacing a traditional desk with a standing workstation or treadmill desk. Install a pull-up bar in the door of your dorm room. Keep something heavy in your dorm room or study area, like a sandbag or barbell that you can lift every now and again. Never sit for longer than an hour without getting up and doing jumping jacks, body-weight squats, or some hip opening stretches and leg swings. After all, research has shown that when it comes to health and longevity, it doesn’t matter how hard you exercise if you spend the rest of your day in a seated position. So think about how you can adjust your daily routine so that your body is constantly active. Actually single out the days and times you have any bit of free time and, instead of hitting Facebook, book it around campus. The state of being svelte requires some sort of stride. Try to walk, jog, run, or bike to class as much as possible. And, instead of hitting the sofa to chill with friends, form a running group or join an existing group. If you have formulas or languages to memorize, walk and review note cards. Find an active study buddy to hold you accountable to NOT falling prey to weight gain.
2. Eat Healthy Options
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, avoid drinking high amounts of caffeine or energy drinks unless absolutely necessary, such as during a series of all-nighters on finals week, and, even then, try to choose brands low in sugars, such as cups of plain black coffee or energy drinks flavored with stevia instead of sugar or sucralose or acesulfame potassium. If you’re already out of college, and have the budget to be able to eat very healthy, and want to get rid of the “freshman 15,” try rebooting your body by taking a couple months to cut down on college staples, like processed food from packages, starches and refined sugars, alcohol, and caffeine and instead eat endless varieties and copious amounts of fresh organic vegetables, seeds, nuts, and organic meats with limited amounts of fresh or frozen organic and unsweetened fruit.
3. Manage 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 journal. 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. Other strategies that have been shown to be very helpful for stress are meditation, gratitude journaling, adequate sleep, and even walking in nature, especially in the type of picturesque, forested, and green areas that you can conveniently find on many college campuses.
4. Sleep More
Be sure to check the House Call Doctor‘s 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 to get an extra nap in, and try to avoid partying for multiple days in a row whenever possible. Try to get exposed to large amounts of sunlight in the morning, and then at night, when you are studying, try to limit exposure to artificial light sources by using blue light blocking glasses or software you can install on your computer to limit the amount of blue light from the screen, such as F.lux or Iristech.
Follow these tips and you’ll be far less likely to fall prey to the “freshman 15” and, in doing so, you will probably feel much better about yourself, your choices, and your college experience – you might even become that svelte and sexy student you never thought you could be. In the meantime, if you have questions, comments or feedback about how to avoid or lose the freshman 15 – You can join the conversation at Facebook getfitguy!
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About the Author
Ben Greenfield received bachelor’s and master’s degrees from University of Idaho in sports science and exercise physiology; personal training and strength and conditioning certifications from the National Strength and Conditioning Association (NSCA); a sports nutrition certification from the International Society of Sports Nutrition (ISSN), an advanced bicycle fitting certification from Serotta. He has over 11 years’ experience in coaching professional, collegiate, and recreational athletes from all sports, and as helped hundreds of clients achieve weight loss and fitness success.