Spring is finally in the air here in the ‘Burg, and in two weeks we’ll all be celebrating Blowout and the start of summer (after taking a few finals here and there). But along with summer comes the pressure to be tan, toned, and bikini-ready. College students are always on the lookout for the latest fad diet that can help them drop those extra pounds before they hit the beach but without the walk to the Rec and the wait for the elliptical.
The most typical “diet” that I always hear about is skipping meals and substituting them with sporadic snacking throughout the day. This may seem like a logical idea to all those TWAMPs out there, since snacks are smaller than meals and they shouldn’t make you gain as much weight. The size difference may be true, but all that snacking has a lot of students fooled. Eating snacks still leaves you wanting more food, which in effect will lead to more trips to Wawa and even more snack food wrappers in the trash. Healthier snack options like fruits and vegetables are definitely better than a bag of chips and a candy bar, but your body does need a certain amount of food in order to metabolize and lose weight. If you go into starvation mode, you body will simply store the weight that is already there, not drop it.
There are also more extreme diets that are easy for students at the College to try but may not be the best idea. The “morning banana diet” is so simple it almost sounds too good to be true- eat a few bananas for breakfast and you can eat anything you’d like for the rest of the day and still lose weight. I’ve heard of students trying this- Sadler and the Caf are always stocked with bananas- but even though they may boost your metabolism, bananas aren’t a magical weight loss fruit.
Other crazy diets that can be found in the fridges of some W&M collegiettes are things like juice and all-liquid diets. The “Martha’s Vineyard Detox Diet” is another fad I’ve heard of people trying. You supposedly lose 21 pounds in 21 days by consuming nothing but vegetable and fruit juices and soups. The problem with this diet is that it may help you drop that extra weight, but if you go right back to your old routine on day 22, you’ll gain it right back.
The take-home message that fad diets teach us is that frankly, they don’t work, at least not the way students desire. An anonymous junior W&M collegiette learned that the hard way. “Freshman year I tried the whole ‘substitute meals with snacks’ thing thinking I would lose weight for summer, but I didn’t. Now I hit up the Rec a few times a week and eat normal-sized meals, and I’ve actually lost the weight I gained freshman year, plus I feel more healthy.”
So what is the best bet for looking hot on the next 80-degree day on the Sunken Gardens? A balanced diet and regular exercise is all it really takes. Moderation is key, so don’t go overboard on one type of food or exercise every second you’re not sitting in Millington 150. Instead, enjoy well-portioned meals and an exhilarating run every now and then. Summer 2011, here we come!