Avoiding Weight Gain
Suggested lead: Gaining weight is so common among new college students, it even has a name: the "freshman fifteen." But there are ways to avoid it. Tom Britt has more.
It's not unusual for first-year college students to come home on break needing new, larger clothes. Campus schedules and lifestyles can cause a disruption not only in sleeping and exercise, but also in eating. Nutritionist Terry Brownlee of the Duke University Medical Center diet and fitness center says this is often the first time most kids have been on their own, with no parent to provide their food choices and make sure they eat regularly.
"There's a tendency to get off schedule. Your mom might have gotten you up and said 'It's time to eat breakfast,' and now you sleep until 10 minutes before class, rush out to class, and you're rushing all day long, and then when you do sit down and eat sometime during the day, you're really over-hungry."
Brownlee says it's important for college students to try to keep some kind of regular schedule for replenishing their energy supply, regardless of how hectic the day might be. She recommends going no more than four to six hours between eating. And parents can help by making sure students are well-stocked with food items that can be eaten on the run, like bagels or energy bars. I'm Tom Britt.
Brownlee says it's important for college students to try to maintain a regular eating schedule.
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"Certainly it's not going to be three squares a day - it just doesn't fit into a college schedule. But you want to feed your body regular energy throughout the day. So I usually suggest not going more than four to six hours without eating something."