Most people have heard of the dreaded freshmen fifteen and how easy it can be to gain weight during the first year of college. One thing is for sure, and that is that it can happen very easily. But it can also be prevented with a few simple changes in lifestyle.

One major factor in the gaining of weight is the diet that is available to the average first year student living in the dorms. Generally speaking, dorm food is a buffet style all-you-can eat marathon. Which doesn’t necessarily mean you actually have to eat ALL that you can. The other factor is that when eating with your dorm friends every day, you tend to take your time and hang around the food for longer than normal which leads to eating more than you normally would. A certain amount of self control is needs to be obtained to stay in shape.

The other major factor in gaining weight is the lack of exercise. If your school has a gym, by all means take advantage of it. People pay a lot of money in the “real world” for gym membership, and yours is included in your tuition. A lot of recreation centers have free classes such as yoga or kick-boxing that you can get into. You can also get into an intramural sport or take a physical education class that will force you to exercise. If you’re not the kind of person that will be self motivated to go to the gym, you should definitely find a friend to exercise with, that way you can push each other to stay active and healthy. The key is finding a form of exercise that you enjoy doing, that way it doesn’t feel like you’re doing a chore to exercise.

As always, if you have any questions, comments or funny stories you'd like me to share about college or the blog, email me at stu@stuvu.com