by Michelle Wilkinson

Created on: July 04, 2010

Although many students find that they put on a few pounds when they leave home for college, this isn’t an inevitable state of affairs. Just because you have the freedom to eat what you want and drink as much as you like, it is still possible to create a routine that enables you to watch your weight. It may be tempting to eat lots of junk food and to go out drinking every night while not doing any exercise, but this won’t help you maintain a healthy weight. You therefore have to keep an eye on your calorie intake and ensure it doesn’t exceed your calorie requirements.

In order to do this you may want to consider doing more exercise, as this will force your body to use more energy. Consequently, on those occasions when you do go overboard with your eating and drinking you won’t have to worry about piling on the pounds. You certainly don’t want to find yourself gaining the infamous ‘freshman fifteen’ that you then have to shed. If you keep active you should be able to counter the worst excesses of your eating and drinking habits, which aren’t always that healthy when you first start college.

Walking is a great form of exercise to do when you’re a student, as you don’t usually have that much money anyway. The chances are you won’t be able to afford to run your own car and it is a waste of money to use public transport when you have two perfectly good legs. Although it might be more convenient to take a bus to campus you won’t burn as many calories as if you decided to walk there. Even if you have a number of miles to cover you could always hop on a bus or a tram for part of the distance and walk the rest of the way.

Clearly, your priority has to be staying fit and healthy and avoiding weight gain. It might take you a little bit longer to walk to your destination, but you could always walk down to the library or student bar with your friends or use your walk to listen to some music. Walking isn’t a particularly taxing form of physical activity, but it still increases your heart rate and gets your body moving enough for you to burn a substantial amount of calories. The more you walk the more calories you burn and so the easier it becomes to avoid the freshman fifteen.

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