How not to gain weight during the school year: tips for students

2024 Author: Malcolm Clapton | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 03:44

In autumn and winter, gaining extra pounds is a piece of cake. This process is especially imperceptible if you are a student and eat buns in the university cafeteria during the breaks between pairs. In order not to cry over your reflection in the mirror in the summer, take care of yourself now.

Today I would like to address first of all to the newly minted first-year students. Why exactly to them? I explain. What do learners usually worry about? That's right, about nothing, except to pass the session on time. After all, this is a university. The next five years of the life of yesterday's school graduate will be spent in the classroom, scientific library, university canteen, budget bar or pub (in the autumn-winter period), in the park closest to the place of study, where you can quietly drink beer (in the spring-summer period) …

As we can see, the places visited by students, in most cases, mean an active set of calories. By the way, the first two points are rarely an exception: it is equally convenient to “snack” on educational stress with a cheesecake with jam or a sausage in a dough everywhere (I'm sure you know).

The path to the period of summer exams is not close and full of dangers - in more than nine months of the school year, you can change beyond recognition, and not only the brain can swell with knowledge. At that moment, when the record book, which has collected all the necessary signatures, flies to the farthest corner, and you are going to the beach, suddenly a glance thrown at your reflection in the mirror can bury the dreams of a bikini runway at once.

The life hacker decided to warn you in advance about this hidden threat in the hope that some will still manage to avoid such a terrible and unfair fate (after all, you diligently comprehend science, and did not beat your thumbs). To do this, today we publish some simple and not requiring great willpower tips on the topic "How not to gain excess weight during the school year."

1. Buy a bike

Probably, most will agree with me: a bike is almost an ideal vehicle, available, probably, to almost everyone. I really love this method of movement and have already mentioned its benefits more than once: here you will enjoy the joy of changing the species that flicker before your eyes, and practicality with economy, and, most importantly, health.

An hour of cycling at an average speed of 12-14 km / h burns about 700-800 kcal. This is an absolute record: for the same time spent walking at a moderate pace, you will get rid of only 150-200 kcal (this is slightly less than half of a Snickers chocolate bar). The situation with yoga is even sadder in terms of energy consumption: an hour of exercise will kill about 90 kcal - almost half as much as walking.

If you are not a fan of long cycling and cross-country trips, then looking towards expensive road bikes or hardtails is not necessary. Consider buying a used bike, which will save you a lot of money, which you can happily spend during your summer holidays. The main condition: you must ride. The more you pedal, the leaner and stronger you get. By the way, many of my friends do not give up their bike until the onset of severe frost. And some manage to ride in winter.

2. Sign up for the sports section

Of course, this does not mean that you should completely devote yourself to preparing for the city relay race or swimming, defending the honor of your native university - by tradition, we will leave this right to the students of the Faculty of Physical Culture and Sports. We are talking about a dozen different sections, in any of which you can enroll without any problems: athletics, boxing, tennis, tourism, equestrian sports, football and even baseball - if you would like to keep yourself in shape. And sports are guaranteed to cheer you up.

3. Eat plenty of vegetables

Most university food outlets have a similar menu, dominated by all kinds of pastries. It's no secret that cheesecakes and pizza are not the most dietary food that many students are ready to eat around the clock.

Dr. Spencer Nadolsky, American family physician-nutritionist, advises combining not the most healthy, but still our favorite food with a lot of vegetables (vegetables can be found in the cafeteria of any university):

Make sure that most of the area on your plate is taken up by vegetables and lean meats. They will satisfy your hunger just as well as high-calorie salads and cakes. Of course, there is no need to completely give up your favorite snacks, just try to get enough of healthier foods first.

4. Set achievable sports goals

Everything seems to be able to influence your relationship with physical education: your academic performance, your interactions with friends, and even the severity of your hangover after having fun on Saturday night. Nevertheless, doing any sport is much more useful than not doing it at all - everyone knows this. Even 15–20 minutes a day that you spend on the horizontal bar and parallel bars will be credited to you in the future (which usually comes faster than we expect).

Set yourself up to practice at least a little bit every day. Gradually (subject to the condition of regularity) you will get used to the need to train - this moment is fundamental.

In addition to this, Kevin Dineen, one of the most sought-after personal fitness trainers in New York today, advises you to switch to split training over time: one day, devote 10 minutes to the legs, the other day - to the arms. The trick is that with this type of stress, your body will not react as painfully to stress.

Just 15 minutes a day. Think about it, is it so much?

5. Apple - test, pie - for retake

Yes, pies and all kinds of pizza analogues fit in the best way in the diet of any student: even if you haven't finished eating, you can always take it with you and “finish it off” later. It seems to be not so bad: cheap and cheerful. But here's the problem: this kind of snack is rich in carbohydrates, it is better not to eat flour products on a regular basis. In addition, they will only relieve you of hunger for a short time.

An ideal snack from the point of view of health will be apples. They contain a lot of fiber, vitamin C and iron - a trace element with which hemoglobin is formed. Armi Legge, a popular American blogger and triathlon athlete, advises:

In addition to apples, you can grab a peanut butter sandwich. It contains a lot of healthy fats and plant proteins. The main thing is that the oil is completely natural.

6. Do not get carried away with alcohol

There is no doubt that skipping a couple of shots in a bar or a can of beer with a pizza for the coming sleep is a ritual that everyone arranged more than once in their young years.

By the way, alcohol itself is a very high-calorie thing, so it's nice to have an idea of how many calories are contained in four cans of beer that you "refueled" with at night looking.

7. Buy a scale

An interesting thing: if you don't weigh yourself regularly, then the weight does not seem to change either. However, it is not. Weight gains (exactly the same as it leaves) is always imperceptible. This is why it is important to keep track of your body weight.

Make it a rule to weigh yourself once a week before breakfast (by the evening the weight becomes a little more due to the fact that not all the food has time to digest), this will help you keep yourself in shape.

As you can see, there is nothing supernatural: move more, try to eat healthy food and do not get carried away by drinking. The complex of these simple measures will help you not to gain extra pounds by the summer season.