Weight gain in Nursing School

Nurses General Nursing

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Ok this is for all my beautiful ladies and gentlemen. What are your eating habits while in nursing school? How do you keep from gaining weight and eating unhealthy? I am so afraid that I am going to gain a ton of weight while in school and I just want some good advice on some healthy eating habits. FYI I am not much of a very healthy eater right at the moment and im trying to watch what I eat, oh yeah im not big on vegetables:banghead:, but I love fruit.

Thanks again, and I can't wait to get all of your advice.

Specializes in LTC, Acute Care.

I think that for me, just doing exercise makes me eat healthier. I don't want to waste my exercise effort with junk food. I personally do not go to a gym. (I'm not a nursing student now, but I do have many responsibilities at home and bills that do not allow for gym time.) I personally am a fan of an exercise ball and Thera-Bands. They are cheap and work me out well. For me, 30 minutes of exercise makes me more productive at work, and my mind is clearer. You can see how this easily would be beneficial to a nursing student. :) It's less time wasted with my mind in a fog.

I recommend staying away from vending machines as much as possible. I gained weight in nursing school because I was ignorant (and pregnant!) and lived off the junk in vending machines. However, I am now a voracious label reader and a big weight loser. I also recommend weighing yourself every single day to keep tight tabs on your weight. It's a lot easier to buckle down on your eating if you see a small weight gain than to try to lose 10-15 pounds from weighing yourself only occasionally. You will also see what certain foods do to your weight daily when you weigh yourself frequently.

I think it is great that you are conscious about this now. That's part of the battle already won.

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I will not be starting school until this fall, but I have already thought about this as well! First of all I am married and we have 4 children so I will definitely have to meal plan so I can feed the whole gang! Secondly, I am a HUGE snacker. I mean I would rather just snack all day instead of eat an actual meal. With having 4 kids I will be studying a lot when they go to bed and I can just see myself now a night time snacker! Currently, I am on Weight Watchers and I have 8 pounds left to get to my goal! :yeah:So with that being said I am just going to continue doing WW. I will basically just stick with my points for the day and I will save a few points for late night studying. I really think that WW will keep me in check!

BTW, I own a wii fit and I use it 30 min. a day and love it!

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i love the wii fit i have one also. I see myself spending hours on it.

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

I gained 40 pounds while attending an LVN program in 2005. Back then, I ate plenty of calorie-laden fast food meals on the go.

I am now attending an LPN-to-RN bridge program with a graduation date of March 2010. I plan to exercise at least 4 times weekly, start preparing more home-cooked meals, and significantly cut down on fatty fast food meals.

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Specializes in telemetry, med surg, LTAC.

Well I got this book called Eat THis NOt That and it really helped me with my fast food choices. Cause I was always on the go. And I'm a night shift worker so I drank LOTS of water when I got the craving to eat something bad for me. Granola bars with the protein are good. Fruit is always good. And switch your milk to 1 percent or even skim. Believe me it works. Lean Cuisine meals for lunch and smart one desserts are very tasty. But make sure you exercise at least 4 days a week. GOOD LUCK!!!

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Specializes in Acute Care Psych, DNP Student.

I do Jillian Michaels workout DVDs six days a week right at home. That woman is one mean task-master, and I like it.

:pumpiron:

Her two latest DVDs (each one is almost an hour) are more strenuous than anything I ever did at the gym.

As far as diet, I cut out soda and high calorie beverages. No processed food snacks. Careful attention to portion control.

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I'm a vegan...haha, it would take serious effort for me to gain weight. diets don't work. lifestyle changes do. I was already vegetarian, and I went down from 200-205 or so to 185 within a month of giving up dairy and egg products. no exercise...(I did get a respiratory infection that had me in bed for a week though...if it lost me another 20lbs I'd do it again, lol) I'm still a bit overweight (I'm a guy, 6' tall), but no big deal. I cook nearly all the food I eat from scratch and the only thing other than vegetables and spices I add is cooking oil or olive oil as a garnish.

I pretty much never exercise, but in years past when I was a vegan, it took almost no exercise to bring me rapidly down to my ideal body weight, and then I stayed there until I started eating dairy and eggs again. people might as well eat lard as dairy products...nature designed milk for helping baby cows put on weight as quickly as possible. I put on weight like a cow when I eat dairy products, too.

vegetarians are drastically less likely (to the tune of 88% fewer instances of colorectal cancer, for example) to get several kinds of cancer, and a few other serious diseases. anybody looking to be more healthy should seriously look into it.

more importantly, I give you:

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