Is it hard to follow a strict diet in college?

Rah22491

Member
Getting ready to go to college in January. Took a couple years off after high school and was hoping I could get some input from people who were still able to bodybuild in college. Any advice is greatly appreciated
 
Steveoph said:
Well the peer pressure can make it hard, but it's definitely doable.
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I have to agree with this sentiment. College is all about "branching out" and "experimenting" which is just a bullsh*t excuse for doing stupid sh*t. Be true to you, you know why you're there.

If you want to maintain a strict diet, you can do it. If you want to train 4 or 5 days a week, you can do it. Seeing as you took a few years off after high school, you're probably more mature and "grown up" than the average first year college student.

If you're living in a dorm, your best bet is probably a high complex carb diet. My reasoning is that oats, wheat bread, etc. can be stored at room temperature. Not to mention the fact that oats are dirt cheap if the whole "poor college student" mantra applies. Some nattyPB (also room temp) sandwiches can help you survive long blocks of classes.
 
Im going to a tech college right now classes from 8-1 then i work from 2:30 to 9:30 weekdays and 8-8 weekends, make it hard as ****.. recent things have come up in my life and after a half bottle of vodka and a video that im not so proud of (along with a broken body) have made me reconsider the drinking part of college.

All in all its what you want to make of it... Can you do it, yeah in fact the gym at your school makes it very easy, its just the money part that i have issues with, my college doesn't have a gym so i have to workout on my own. :S

And when you get piles of HW at a time it makes ordering that pizza and skipping the gym all that much better. Motivation is key, if you WANT to do it, you CAN DO IT.
 
Thanks guys i know ive got the discipline cause ive been doin it for a while but ive just heard college food is crap and was wondering how hard it was to get lean meats and good complex carbs
 
I guess it depends on your situation. I went to college and live at home, even though I had hours of college a day I still ate my diet regardless of what the circumstances.

I would have tuna fish in a container, or meat in a container, a bottle of olive oil, a baggy of protein powder and a cup to mix my shake in as well as a gallon of water. Carried this stuff with me everyday, ate during classes.
 
SilentBob187 said:
I have to agree with this sentiment. College is all about "branching out" and "experimenting" which is just a bullsh*t excuse for doing stupid sh*t. Be true to you, you know why you're there.

If you want to maintain a strict diet, you can do it. If you want to train 4 or 5 days a week, you can do it. Seeing as you took a few years off after high school, you're probably more mature and "grown up" than the average first year college student.

If you're living in a dorm, your best bet is probably a high complex carb diet. My reasoning is that oats, wheat bread, etc. can be stored at room temperature. Not to mention the fact that oats are dirt cheap if the whole "poor college student" mantra applies. Some nattyPB (also room temp) sandwiches can help you survive long blocks of classes.
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Couldn't have said it better.

I never lived in dorms, so I haven't had to suffer that. I left home at 18 to live in an apartment near campus with two buddies of mine. I never had a hard time eating or workout out. I was just as strict with everything there as I was back home.

You're there to get your degree. Drinking is overrated so don't get cought up in that crap. Find some good, solid friends. Do your training, do your eating, get out as fast as you can.
 
Nothing in life worth anything great is easy, no matter what stage in life you are having discipline is tough. Tough but worth it, the bodybuilding lifestyle pays off in the end. Just think of all the ass you will get with abs as opposed to a beer gut.
 
I found it easier to control my diet than to control my alcohol intake.

I never lived in the dorms, but they were my #1 spot to hit up after a hard workout. buffet style of a lot of diff. choices. I would usually opt for a big salad, a slice or two of pizza, 2-3 hard boiled eggs, and chicken breast (if they had it that day). Granted, this was my PWO meal - I would drop the pizza on other occasions.

I ate a ****-ton of carbs during my college days... pasta (usually no-meat spaghetti), yogurt, subway like every frick'n day. I never had a problem keeping the pounds down even when eating this kind of stuff. Now, 6 years older, I seem to be more sensitive to carbs and/or my metabolism has taken a nose dive. I have to watch things a lot more now.

Also, walking around campus all day going from class to class really helped, I'm sure.
 
I am a vegetarian by caste, but I manage to get my chicken outside home! I did not miss my workouts even on the exam days of my post-grad! however once I joined job, it was difficult! thr can be situations whn you may have to compromise..you can't help ofcourse! several factors count but try n manage somehow.. thts wat I can say. cheers@!
 
Rah22491 said:
How avalible are lean meats and good whole wheat carbs like pasta and sweet potatoes?
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It all depends on your university obviously. Some cafs are buffet style, some are pay for what you eat (Poor!).

Also some are super-strict on sneaking food out, others you can get tons. Bottom line is: with a good plan this can be done quite effectively, but IT'S UP TO YOU TO MAKE IT HAPPEN!
 
Just wanted to throw my 2 cents in here, I actually just started college this past fall. I've been here at UCF in Orlando for about 2 1/2 months now. I have to say, college here is great, and I'm sure wherever you go you'll love it.

About the strict diet, I'm actually trying to lean out right now, and it isn't as hard as I thought it would be. I mean, sure, when you fall into going to eat with friends, or going to parties, that's the only time you'll fall off your diet. It happens to me, but I plan around it, by limiting my next few meals in calories. Like someone said in a previous post, buy the bulk quaker oats(greatest food in the world in my opinion), and whole wheat bread, fruits, raisins, etc. I also have a lot of canned foods like tuna. I'm not sure if you'd want to, but getting a mini fridge was the best thing I did. I have egg whites every morning, yogurt and protein in milk after workout, cottage cheese or tuna and mayo before bed, etc. Plus protein shakes with ice pwn.

On the other hand, if you have a meal plan and the places you eat are a buffet, you might as well just jump off a building now. My parents bought a 100 meal plan per semester for me, and it was AWESOME, until I started cutting -.-. Seriously now it's all about portion control, grab one plate, 1/4 lean meat, 1/4 clean carbs, 1/2 fibrous veggies. No all you can eat ice cream for me anymore :[. DON'T FALL INTO THE "oh you only live once" BS, EAT FOR YOU, NOT FOR TWENTY.

But anyway, you can do it pretty easy if you want, it's all about discipline. That's why I never miss a day at the gym 5 days a week..going and working out GIVES me discipline, without it, I doubt I'd do my work on time, be healthy, etc. It trains you for everything else in life. You'll start to feel that you are above your friends and how they live, and frankly you are, as long as you are disciplined. So don't fall into the college trap! And make that freshman 15 all lean muscle.
 
Also, if you know you are going to "cheat", try to make it your PWO meal. That's the primary time I hit up the dorm buffets. Stuff our face.
 
"falling of the wagon" with a cutting diet, a standard none ketogenic cutting diet anyway can be twisted into someones favor. Plan a meal as a refeed meal, give yourself a chance to set some of the metabolic wheels in motion.
 
What it really comes down to is effort and dicipline. Its a pain in the **** for me to get my meals squared away but i do it because its what i gotta do to get as big as fukcin possible.
 
Rah22491 said:
joelast where u in college at. And why is it hard to get your meals square
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I go to a military college, its not buffet style we just sit down and take what they give us. Theres plenty of milk and fruit though. they also have like eggs, cottage cheese or tuna but that runs out quick.
 
Yeah I've made some pretty good gains, Since the middle of August I've put on 13 pretty clean lbs, I've gotten a lilttle lo0s with my diet but have recently tightened it back up. I buy alot of pre packaged meats (Tuna and Chicken) and eat teh mess hall food sparringly. The food I eat tastes like **** but you get used to it.

Summer trainings the worst, guarenteed to lose 10 lbs from being out in the field and eating ****.

Rugger I PMed you about that sht
 
Freshman year was meal plan, which was key for eating a lot, because it was all you could eat, so if you have that, stock up. I used to use containers and take some back to the dorms with me. The past two years have been apt. life, which is easier, in my opinion to stay cleaner, but of course, cost of food gets high. In the end, I suppose meal plan cost vs. home cooked food cost is pretty close in the end.


Good luck man.
 
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