Weight Loss in College is Simpler Than You Think

I thought I knew a lot about weight loss while I was in college. However, now that I have more time to learn more about weight loss, I realized that I didn't really know much. We've heard many experts say that weight loss can be achieved when you reduce your calorie intake and increase physical activity. While this simple fact is true, many people (and students) do not understand that something simple does not necessarily mean it's easy. Another thing that students need to understand is when people say weight loss, they really mean body fat loss. In other words, they want to lose body fat - not muscle.

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Ok, now that those are out of the way, let's look at college students' lifestyle. College students can be fairly active when compared to the general population because college campuses are usually big. This means that students would have to either walk or ride their bike to school or even to the next class. In addition, if they have very little time available in between classes, they would usually rush to the next class which makes their heart rate go up. College campuses are also usually equipped with nice, big gyms to encourage the students to live an active lifestyle. Take me for example - I used to walk and/or ride my bike to school and my classes. I was also an avid gym goer and hit the weights when I was going to school. My school even had an indoor track where I can run whenever I want to even when the weather outside is nasty.

Considering that I was fairly active while I was in college, I look back at it and wonder, "Why was I at my heaviest weight?" Several months later, I went back to visit my old campus. I looked around saw all the restaurants and fast food places that were in the area. I came to the conclusion that college students have some of the best examples of bad nutrition. For instance, there's a Carl's Jr. and a Pizza Hut at one cafeteria. In another cafeteria, there was a coffee shop with a full-blown bakery. When you're off-campus, there's Jack in the Box, In and out (a burger chain), McDonald's, cheap Chinese food, etc. While there are also healthier food options, these foods are usually more expensive than fast food. Most students are poor or live on a limited income so, they would go for the cheap, unhealthy foods. Additionally, most students either don't have time to cook or don't know how to cook. So, their nutrition at home would most likely be Ramen noodles or microwaveable foods!

So, when it comes to weight loss, bad nutrition and a little bit of activity here and there just does not cut it. Towards the end of college, I started being even more active by staying in the gym for at least an hour and a half. What's wrong with this picture? If you're a student who actually cares about grades then, you'll know that this takes away from your precious study time and sleep time. Sure, I saw results when I stayed in the gym longer but my nutrition was still all over the place. I eventually reached a weight loss plateau (e.g. no more weight loss even though I still had 20 more pounds to lose).

Now, that I'm not in school (which translates to having more time because I'm not doing homework during the weekend), I was able to experiment on ways to speed up my weight loss. This process took awhile but it's very well worth it. So, a year and a half later, I finally found them!

I want to talk about strength training and its relationship with weight loss first before I delve into nutrition. Remember, how I used to spend wwwaaaayyy too much time at the gym? Well, not anymore. Thanks to strength training in supersets. Now, I am able to do a lot more with my time and yet I only spend at most 45 minutes at the gym - 3 days a week. Does this sound too good to be true? Well, it isn't because I'm actually putting my body to work. Ok, this statement may not make sense to you right now so, here is an example:

You can pair: 8 reps of Squats with 8 reps of bench presses - to eliminate the rest time between the two exercises Then, you can do 3 sets of the same pair. Take 1 minute rest. Think of two more upper body and lower body exercise exercises and repeat the process.

Here is a list of some upper body and lower body exercises:

Upper body: Military Press, Bicep Curl, Deltoid Raise Lower body: Reverse/Forward Lunges, Step-ups, Dead Lifts Perform some core/ab exercises: Plank, Side Plank, Crunches on a Stability Ball Follow up your strength training session with a 15-minute high intensity cardio. Contrary to popular belief, slow, boring cardio does not work. So, the usual 40 minute, low intensity cardio would be replaced by the more effective, less time-consuming high intensity cardio.