Don’t touch that: tips for avoiding the Freshman 15

Dear Class of 2014,

Welcome to college. In the next four years, you will experience a period of unprecedented personal growth, new experiences and weight gain.

The reality is — as most college students can attest — the Freshman 15 is very common and, given the countless pitfalls college presents, most likely coming to a waist near you. However, given the right mind set and the proper preparation, you can coast through college lean, mean and eating more than just a bowl of greens.

The Food

Think back to dinners at your house growing up — what’s on the plate? Maybe some stir-fried chicken with rice, a bowl of pasta, a couple of slices of pizza, a big glob of peanut butter, a plate of chicken nuggets — wait, that was what I ate my freshman year when given unlimited, unchecked and deliciously glistening food choices.

What you should do instead is model your plate of food after how it used to looked at home, when it was coming to you from your mom and not the all-you-can-eat buffet at Everybody’s Kitchen. Chances are good your plate at home had a protein element — some fish, perhaps a piece of meat — a starch like rice or bread, a big pile of vegetables and maybe some fruit on the side, or a dessert — it’s not going to kill you.

Keep this blueprint in mind. Notice there’s no spot to squeeze in a slice of pizza twice a day or your evening waffle. Those things are fine on occasion, but remember that the Freshman 15 lives and dies by moderation.

One more tip: It’s important not to entirely excommunicate certain junk foods from your diet in the name of “good health.” Walking past the frozen yogurt machine every day and refusing even a taste is going to make you crazy to the point where you’ll plant a chair under the machine and eat until there’s chocolate oozing out of your pores.

Eating junk food occasionally is fine — I think my check-ins at Taco Bell can attest to that — but it’s important to remember that the real weight gain comes from lifestyle choices, and the dining hall is ground zero for that.

The Drink

There’s one quick fix that curbs the Freshman 15, but the average college student is not going to like it. Consider a few numbers though: a typical shot of hard alcohol racks up 65 calories, a 12-ounce can of beer clocks in at 150 and a mixed drink with fruit juice or soda hits upwards of 250 calories.

Now let’s see if this scenario has any upperclassman nodding in agreement. It’s a Thursday night; you get ready to go out and take a couple of shots, walk to a party and take another shot in celebration, drink a red Solo cup of rum and Coke on the dance floor, take a shot with those guys from your discussion section, maybe play a few games of beer pong and eventually call it a successful night.

Congratulations, that was also about 1,000 calories (excluding, of course, the 700 calories you banked from those four Jack-in-the-Box tacos on your way back). If you’re going out twice a week, we’re talking about 2,000 new calories in your diet. That’s enough to win you a couple of bonus pounds per month.

The moral of this story is not that you can’t enjoy yourself from time to time, but rather that most college students are blissfully unaware of the caloric wallop alcohol packs. At seven calories per gram, alcohol is much denser than carbohydrates or protein (which clocks in at four calories per gram), and even teeters dangerously close to fat’s nine calories per gram.

The antidote to all this is surprisingly simple — either ramp up your workout to counteract an extra 2,000 calories or drink less.

The Lifestyle

You’re going to get this a lot over the next few months from Recreational Sports or the guy down the hall who wants to play frisbee at midnight, so I’ll keep it brief: go outside. It is as simple as that. You are about to start four years in a city with the most stereotypically perfect weather in the United States. Take advantage of it. People who have to hibernate for three months in Michigan or the Texans whose shoes melt on the pavement in August have an excuse for sitting inside and channeling the sloth.

People living in Los Angeles do not. Go to the beach and go for a run. Join a soccer team and play outside in January. It doesn’t matter what you choose, just do something. You’ll find it’s easy to get stuck in the rut of class, study, party, eat, repeat and before you know it, all your high school jeans have mysteriously shrunk.

A final thought: College is short. Have fun. Relax. Weight is not permanent and 15 pounds will not kill you. That said, the Freshman 15 is not a foregone conclusion, and, with a little planning plus the right mind set, it can easily be more myth than reality.