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cvalh said: "I'm another college student - a senior- and I got drunk Friday night too... And I didn't really try to limit myself. But, here's the thing. If you really want to indulge, don't do it every weekend, or every night on the weekend. Go one or two nights a month. In some ways that makes it more fun, too, b/c it's like a treat."
spectrachic311 said: "I remember the days of college...developing self control was key for me. And yeah, it's hard to sit in a study group where they order in pizza and just sit there eating an apple or a piece of string cheese as my snack. But it'll make you stronger in the end. Willpower is a muscle, just like any other muscle. You have to use it to make it stronger. This means saying "Nah, I'm not in the mood for hot wings right now" or "I gotta cut back on the booze, it's giving me a gut" or something. My line was always "I've got to stop after two drinks because I have to study in the morning/I have a morning class". Trust me, no one will look down on you or think you're less manly cuz you aren't pounding back the booze. And hey, 10-15 drinks a NIGHT is a LOT of booze. That's like, 1500 calories of liquid. To me, that'd be a waste of calories. And definitely stick to hard clear liquor (gin, rum, vodka, etc.) and diet sodas instead of beer. Light beer has about 110-125 calories each, unless you get the ULTRAlight (Michelob Ultra, Rolling Rock Green Light, Beck's Ultra, etc.) which have 60-100 calories each. A rum and diet has 65-70 calories, depending on the proof of the liquor and the bartender. So yeah, definitely go with the hard stuff and not beer."
ExManiac said: "Yup captain morgan and diet coke w/lime is my drink of choice. You'll definitely drink less calories, b/c a light beer still has around 100 calories. A shot of rum has 124 calories [U]but[/U] is about 35-50% alcohol, where as light beer is around 4% alcohol. So basically, to get the same amount of alcohol from drinking beer that you would get from drinking a rum and diet coke, you'd have to drink around 1000 calories worth of beer... I think I'd take the diet coke and rum at 124 calories."
secondchance said: "Yeah, I know eactly what you mean. I am also a college student and sometimes those quick meals or night outs do not help one bit. Every time me and my cousin go out and drink she has to have Jack in the Box- at2-3 a.m. But the beer tidbit is useful considering I had like5-6 beers on Saturday. Those were the last beers for me! But the weekend thing, same things happen to me with my days off. I work weekend so I am fine with eating too much becuase I can't eat at work. But on those days off I get so bored and like pig out. Then I get bummed becuase I pig out and stop working at it. Don't copy me. At least you should be proud enough to say you went to work out on Sunday and didn't give up. Trust me, I know it's hard especially for us college kids."
Kaystar123 said: "You have to develop self control then. :) I was in the same position as you--college is the worst place to try and be healthy and fit especially with all the triple order cheesy breadsticks or pizzas and tons of alcohol excess to worry about. What you need to do to gain your self control is (if you're gonna drink on the weekends) control WHAT you drink. That means drinking hard alcohol with non-caloric mixers. What are your drinks of choice when drinking. Also try and keep your drinking to two drinks or so. If you're afraid you'll get hell for not drinking enough, order just plain diet sodas and tell them it's a rum and coke. Or just tell them that you're feeling drunk enough already and if you drink something else you'll probably throw up. But just because you drink doesn't mean you have to throw away everything you've been trying to work for--keep drinking for only 2 days a week though if you can help it. For the rest of the week, eat clean foods and drink green tea (brewed kind preferably) to help clean out your system.
Eat clean foods means stay away from pizzas or other fried foods and be wary of cafeteria options. Salad bars can be good but buy some balsamic vinegar to put on them which is better for you and only 15 calories per two tablespoons! But everyone has self control (even I found out I have some) you just have to decide how much you want to lose the weight and look fantastic. The alcohol you drink or that slice of pizza you eat with satisfy you for maybe a few minutes or even an hour but looking fantastic and trimmer will satisfy you forever!!! It's hard and there will no DOUBT be people around you who will want to see you fail--more because of their own insecurities--but you CAN DO THIS! So you got drunk this weekend, SO WHAT?! Today is a brand new day to eat well and work out and feel better. I got discouraged in college when I lost 15 pounds over a Christmas break and then started drinking. I got so upset over my lack of self control that I just said "Forget it" and kept drinking and started eating more and I ended up gaining the 15 pounds back. Don't worry about what you did to "mess up" that is in the past. Today is always a day to do better....remember that. You're doing just fine--keep with it and don't let your insecurities boss you around. YOU are in control of what you do. And YOU can lose this weight. :) Just believe it!"
Kaystar123 said: "Yes rum and diet coke would be way better than light beer....it contains fewer calories. Most beers being brewed from glutenous materials carry more sugars and carbs than hard alcohol....plus you can get drunk faster on less hard alcohol than drinking beer. If you gotta drink to get drunk, stick with rum and diet coke or gin and tonics are good too if you like gin."
Kaystar123 said: "It could be a lot of factors the main one being they probably have a higher metabolism. You can make yours higher by eating smaller more frequent meals, drinking green tea and lots of water, and WEIGHT TRAIN! More muscle means a higher resting metabolism. But don't fret about your friends who can eat and drink their weight and not gain a pound....5 years later you'll notice they've packed on 30 pounds. EVERYONE'S metabolism will slow down eventually. My dad and mom were the skinniest things on the planet when they were my age. Seriously I was so upset looking at pictures of them because they were so stick thin...and they could eat anything....but today they are having to stick by a strict diet and had to lose about 40 pounds a piece because they took advantage of that lifestyle. My fiance was also really really skinny and over the course of 3 years he's packed on about 20 pounds. I tried to let him know that though he USED to have a killer high metabolism (he would always brag about this when we were first dating) it has slowed and he can't eat all the things he used to--the good thing is now he's starting to realize that fact. Your friends will pay the price eventually but YOU have a rare opporitunity to start early and forgo the problems that they'll end up facing later on. Only compare yourself to yourself--don't look at other people and say how you want to look like them or be able to eat like them....you got to work with what you have. This was a fact that took me YEARS to learn. Till then stick with rum and diet coke and you'll be better off! :)"
kemb2722 said: "I totally hear you...I'm a Junior in college too, and it can be rough. I pretty much decided I had to quit drinking if I wanted to lose weight, I didn't have the self control to drink only a few, and not just sit on my ass and eat junk food and nurse the hangover the next day. The only way I was successful was by quitting totally. This may be different for you, but I'm just sharing what I had to do!
Anyhoo, try not to get discouraged when you 'mess' up. I always think of it with this really corny analogy ----> When you're taking a test, and you get one answer wrong, do you quit taking the test completely? No, you say, "Oh well, I got one wrong, but i can still do really well if I get the rest of the answers right." (or most of them ;))
Remember that it takes 3500 calories OVER your maintence calorie level to gain just one pound. So lets say between your BMR and your workouts, you're burning a total of 2500 calories a day ( I have no idea what your height/weight is so I'm guessing here!) And you're eating a total of 1500....all week! There is no way that one day of eating junk could result in THAT much damage. Some damage, yes, but all your work isn't just "gone"! Cheer up, it'll get easier!"
fatcollegekid said: "so i was doing good all last week, going to the gym every day and eating around 1500 calories a day... then the weekend came. I got really wasted friday night so saturday was a hungover day which involved me sitting on my couch all day long watching tv and eating horribly unhealthy food. Im pretty sure any weight i may have lost during the week was gained back by my lack of self control. So what did i do saturday night? Got drunk again... now its sunday afternoon and im gunna try to make it to the gym and pretty much start from scratch. I have no fricken self control."
fatcollegekid said: "thanks for the support guys, im happy to see that people can relate to my situation. Its hard for me to go out and just have 2 or 3 drinks. On a given night of drinking, i might consume up to 10-15 drinks. My tolerance is through the roof and i also weigh 220 lbs so it takes more to get me drunk. My drink of choice is beer and i try to keep it to light beer. But i also like rum and cokes. Would it be less calories if i kept it to rum and diet cokes instead of light beer? Either way i know that i need to cut down with the drinking. I just got done working out and i feel a lot better than earlier. I just got to keep it up!"
fatcollegekid said: "i dont understand how my friends can drink just as much as me if not more, then eat a whole pizza when they are drunk and not gain a single damn pound! its just not fair... these last few years of college have really taken a toll on me. i really dont want to give up drinking completely (these are my prime years of having fun) but obviously i need to cut back. Its gunna be hard but i hope it will pay off in the long run."