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Easy Diets for College Students

Many students never shop or cook for themselves until they go away to college. They often gain weight when due to an increase in alcohol and fast-food consumption, and an irregular schedule. Depending upon their budgets and the amount of time and effort they put into meal planning and preparation, there are several simple diet plans that college students can successfully follow.

  1. Weight Watchers

    • This diet plan is good for college students because it followed for free and allows them to eat the types of food they want as long as they don't surpass a daily points allowance (which is determined by height, weight, and goal weight). Many Weight Watchers participants attend weekly meetings where they are weighed in receive support from a leader and other members. While this can be very helpful, it is not required. There is even a Weight Watchers online program that allows members to can keep track of their food and activity points, track their progress and find recipes. This can be accessed on a smart phone. Weight Watchers mobile is compatible with a Blackberry, iPhone, and Windows Mobile 6 users. Weight Watchers online cost $47.90 for the first month and $17.95 for each additional month for the standard plan. But most of the plan's basic information can be found online for free--including points for popular chain restaurants and fast-food chains as well as the formula to determine how to figure out how many points a food has.

    Nutrisystem

    • For college students with a little bit more money to spend, or who dislike cooking and measuring portions, Nutrisystem might be a better fit. Nutrisystem offers several plans for men, women, vegetarians, and even diabetics. You pick and choose which snacks and meals you want and the food is delivered to your home or campus. The meals are already measured and require little to no preparation. The cost of a basic plan for four weeks with auto delivery (your meals will continue to be sent and credit card will continually be charged until you cancel) is $299.95, or roughly $75 per week, as of April 2010. The program also includes some of the online components that Weight Watchers does such as recopies, tips, motivational tools, and information on exercising.

    Special K Diet

    • This diet consists of two meals and one snack per day of products made by Kellogg's Special K Brand. You may eat lowfat granola cereal, protein shakes or bars, fruit crisps, cereal bars, crackers, or protein water. The diet is supplemented with fresh fruit and vegetables and skim milk with your cereal. The last meal you make yourself, and there are tips provided on the Special K Challenge website. Leaving the task of counting calories and measuring portions for only one meal is a fairly simple task. This is not only very simple for college students to eat on the run, but also cereal is a fairly inexpensive food and Special K products are sold at most supermarkets and discount stores. Also, you may frequently find coupons in Sunday circulars or online as well as sales on these products.

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