Food: How Can I Avoid the "Freshman 15"?

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You've heard about it.

And sure, you dismissed it.

But"like term papers and late nights"the "freshman 15" is a reality for new college students.

Not all of them, of course. There will always be the fortunate ones who eat everything on the menu and don't gain a pound. But they're the exceptions. You're the rule.

For those who haven't heard of it, the "freshman 15" refers to the 15 pounds that many college students gain in their first year away at school. Some classic reasons for this:

• Those four words noted in the introduction to this chapter""all you can eat""can really catch up to you. Just because you can eat it, your body doesn't necessarily need it. What it doesn't need is turned to fat.
• College students are often under lots of stress, keep lousy hours, and are suckers (we mean that in a nice way) for daily doses of cheap, convenient, fattening foods. Late-night chicken wings, a steady diet of pizza and french fries, and regular study-break milkshakes are delicious, convenient, comfort foods that are guaranteed to help you pack on pounds if eaten regularly.    
• Alcohol always catches up to you. If it's not in the form of a splitting headache the next morning, it might also happen after a few weeks of regular drinking, when you notice your pants are a little tighter than they used to be.
• Former high school athletes who aren't part of a team anymore may get heavier if they don't find a way to make up for the exercise they're missing. "If you eat the same now as you did when you played three sports all year, needless to say, you will probably gain weight," says Kristina Ihlenfeldt of Clemson University.

Emily Bott (Utah State University, Class of 2006) never reached the "15" plateau, but she was surprised when she found herself approaching it during her freshman year. "When I first started school, I don't think I realized I was eating badly," she recalls. "I was getting all the food that I thought would be good to eat, and then by midsemester I noticed that I was in fact gaining some weight. I think I started gaining weight because after class, when I was bored, I would come home and just eat."

Once she noticed she was gaining weight, she devised an effective two-part counterpunch: She began using her bike regularly around campus, and started eating a greater variety of foods, diversifying from her peanut-butter-and-jelly routine. It worked.

As Emily's experience shows, the first step to beating the freshman 15 is to acknowledge that it exists. This way, you'll think twice before you eat your third burrito in as many days. Of course, even after thinking twice, you still might scarf it down. Who can blame you? You're hungry, it's late at night, and it's college. But at least you'll know that you should make an extra effort to work it off the following day. In the absence of that frame of mind, it's very likely that you'll join the ranks of overweight freshmen.

Erin Fletcher (Duke University,) says those who ate well before going away to school should be able to continue that approach. If it worked at home, she reasons, it'll work at school. "It's hard to keep the same sort of schedule and consistency, but it's the best way to avoid gaining weight and overindulging," she says. "You didn't go to the store after every dinner and buy half a pound of gummies and M&Ms before, so don't do it now."

Valerie Rozycki (Stanford University,) has also been mindful of the "if-it-works-at-home" approach. "I used to never eat desserts at home just because we rarely had them in the house," says Valerie. "All of a sudden when the dining hall offers brownies 24/7, I started eating them more frequently, and it began to show." She's since switched to a healthier alternative"frozen yogurt.

A key component to any weight-loss or weight-maintenance plan is exercise, the benefits of which far exceed burning off fat. Melinda Stiles (University of Minnesota, Twin Cities,) found that regular exercise solved her stress problems a lot better than junk food. "After the first few weeks, I started to get really busy and stressed. I found that after I went out for a run, I felt less stressed, ate better, and, consequently, kept the weight off," she says.

Smart choices in the dining hall also helped her keep her weight in line. "It's hard to decide what to eat when there are so many options, but I tried to remember that I didn't always have to eat until I was full every time."

Melinda put her approach to the test during one rough stretch when she stopped exercising and didn't pay attention to her food choices. The inevitable occurred: "The pounds started creeping on," she remembers, before providing a word of caution to new students: "Make sure to keep up on exercise!"

The best results occur, of course, when students exercise and make smart diet choices. By not eating too much food and limiting junk food, regular exercise will work to keep your body toned"in tip-top shape"rather than merely keeping the flab off.

This doesn't mean that you can't enjoy that cheeseburger and fries. But it's best to make those indulgences an occasional, rather than routine, part of your life.