How did you lose all your nursing school weight after graduation?

Nurses General Nursing Nursing Q/A

Hello everyone! I am sure this is everyone's favorite subject (:lol2: ), but I was wondering if anyone has experienced the ENORMOUS weight gain in nursing school. I have gained close to 35 pounds in a year!! When I started nusing school I was wearing a Juniors size 13, so I wasnt the skinniest person, but I was comfortable, and now I wear a 16/18 in womens!

If anyone has any success stories that they woild like to share with me, that would probably lift my spirits and help me towards my weight loss goal. I appreciate it very much!!

14 Answers

Specializes in Photolab technician.

Being constantly busy is sure to make you lose weight, but it's not a good method. There's gotta be some rhyme to your rythym; set up a plan and stick to it. Bag lunches instead of driving through McD's, head to the gym a few times per week, drink diet soda if you're a sodaholic like myself. Not only does devising a plan work, but it gives you an awesome confidence boost when you notice the weight disappearing and this shows up in higher grades and a generally better morale.

I won't pretend to be a health nut because I'm not, by any means. I'm lazy when I want to be. I've put on 6 lbs since I left school in May, but I start back full-time in less than a month and I know I'll drop that 6 lbs almost instantly. I work out 2-3 times per week, eat healthier, and starting this semester I'm going to be running in the early AM. I'm carpooling with friends this semester so no more sleeping until the last possible second. Knowing that I'm responsible for others getting to school on time is a big deal. I have to be up early, I may as well get in some exercise if I'll be up then.

Just find a niche that works for you. "I'm constantly busy" is a terrible excuse to not be physically active. I said it for years, and then finally got myself set into a plan and I dropped nearly 25 lbs. in a single semester. I'm heading into my 4th year in college and I weigh less than I did when I graduated high school, and I'm taller now too!

I didn't lose weight. In fact, I gained it.

Specializes in PCU.

I gained around 50 to 60 pounds... I've never been this heavy before and while successful at losing weight in the past, it is now exponentially difficult... Out of nursing school since May but have kept the same eating habits (food for comfort and much easier than excercise). I'm now a durty tubby boy... not that there is something wrong with that... we've all been schooled of the damaging effects of significant weight gain... Maybe I should start now....

I gave up smoking shortly after. I was about a size 8 and was worried about gaining weight. I started to cycle which was very difficult in the beginning. I'd only go about two blocks square, about 15 minutes.

I gradually increased my rides and these days I am a size 4 and can go up fully fledged mountains. I'm only 5'1" though so I'm sort of height weight appropriate.

That was three years ago.

I love cycling because it's far easier for me to do than starting gym membership and I have never been a runner so I thought it best not to start at age 30. It's also great for getting the stress of my job out.

Specializes in ortho/neuro/general surgery.

I don't have a *success* story per-say, but I have lost 19 pounds since April. In late March I ended up on a 3 wk medical leave and gained 20 pounds. I'm now back to what I was at before that, which isn't thin but it's better.

I take the stairs at work instead of the elevator whenever possible, drink lots of water when I can, stopped pigging out on pints of ice cream after stressful shifts... just a lot of little things, no major diet or anything. (But I must admit my favorite way to destress after a shift where there was a code or near-code, my butt got chewed by a doc, or we were insanely shortstaffed is with Haagen-Daz Dulce de Leche!;) )

I looked so gooooood before school started!! I had done the "divorce diet"! LOL!! Then I rode my bicycle. Sometime during second semester, right after Halloween, I started in on my daughter's Halloween candy and didn't stop munchin'.

Now I plan on having a routine, and bicycling again. I get SOB when I bend down and that's not comfortable. A sad joke I tell my friend (that's an LPN) is "I have to hurry up and eat this before I get diabetes." Usually it's a piece of cake...

Anyway, I vote bicycle for me!

Specializes in Case mgmt., rehab, (CRRN), LTC & psych.

I, too, gained 35 pounds during nursing school. However, I have not lost the nursing school weight. In fact, I have gained an additional 10 pounds by way of eating fast food on the run and living a sedentary, unhealthy lifestyle.

I can tell you how I lost my nursing school weight - I became a nurse! I work on a busy step down med/surg floor and I'm always running around ragged. I never have time to eat and I'm so busy and stressed I forget to eat (I've never forgotten to eat before.)

I've been a nurse for 6 months, and I've lost 16 lbs without dieting or exercising - other than nursing. Not the healthiest way to go, and I'm a big stress case. It's very hard to have a healthy routine as a nurse, since we don't have normal routines.

I think resisting all the goodies at work helps, and packing your own healthy food (provided you have time to eat it.)

Yes, it is amazing just how much weight that went on in nursing school. Weight Watchers helped and having more free time to walk also helped...but then comes the stress of the job ...and. makes me want to stress eat all over again.... it is viscous cycle......it seems!!!!! Hang in there and don't give up!!!! Keep praying....

Specializes in Pediatric ICU.

Gosh you guys....this was a real eye-opener for me!

I'm starting back to school in two weeks and have been contemplating my 5 lb. weight gain last semester. My downfall is dinners. I'm so harried at the end of the day with having my nose in a book all day and then running around with my kids at night there never seems to be time to prepare a proper dinner. My kids hate the dreaded "crock pot" (they say "crack pot"). We seem to be eating drive-thru more often than not. I'm sure that contributes a lot. We all make good choices for breakfast and lunch but dinner is a problem.

What to do? Hubby's not a cook (at all...) and kids are not interested in taking on the responsibility. So, I do what I can and force them to eat healthy when I do get the crock pot going.

Thanks for the insight as to what it'll be like when I start working. I know we have to make good choices throughout the day or we will pay sooner or later.

Specializes in Childhood TLC.

I realise this thread is a bit old, but I am going through this, and believed that I was the only one... for all my classmates are all staying the same. {that I know of}

When I started my studies in July, in the middle of our Tasmanian winter , I was actually walking to and from campus... {3km each way} and my BP was a nice 110 on 70 with pulse of 58... now four months on, here in November, my BP is up to 120 on 84 and my pulse is up to 68... and I no longer walk, for I was spending hours up late at night and then never being organised enough in the mornings to get my son to school and the car reparked at home for me to walk in...

and then by the time I get home I just don't have energy to cook for one... and I end up eating the leftovers of littleone after he's refused his food... and so the circle goes...

so now I know I'm easily about 20 pounds up and I was NOT a light gal to begin...

Summer break is coming up and so I hope to spend some time getting some of the weight off and then maybe I'll be able to pick up the walking {to and from} routine again.

ummm....I started working full time as a nurse....nuff said

+ Add a Comment