Underweight in College: What to Do if You Struggle with the Opposite of the "Freshman 15" - Part 1 - Women Campus

Take it from a skinny girl: being a "bag of bones" (thanks, grandma) isn't all it's cracked up to be. Clothes need some curves to bring the oomph-factor—and frankly, in my opinion, bikinis just look better when they're hugging soft feminine bodies. But college, with all its stressors and its super-busy schedules, can really wreak havoc on a growing girl's appetite! From illness, to stress, to eating disorders, there are plenty of reasons that a collegiette^TM could end up bringing too little weight to the scale. So what's a girl to do if she has dropped a few pounds, or even if she could use a few extra so her grandmother will stop clucking about her slim chances of finding a husband? And is it really worth the effort?

It's worth it—and here's why:

While being overweight can be unhealthy, so can being underweight. After suffering from anorexia for two years in high school, Morgan* was starting to feel the effects. "At 5'6", I was just 105 pounds," Morgan says, "After two years of this, my hair began falling out, I was constantly cold, I fainted about once a month, I still hadn't gotten my period, and my doctor explained that I was increasing my risk for infertility and uterine cancer."

It's no wonder that, in a survey of United States college students, 47.1% rated being underweight as more dangerous than being overweight and 88.2% said that they would worry more about an underweight friend than an overweight one. In addition to the very serious health concerns which Morgan's doctor raised, being underweight can lead to a whole host of other issues, including osteoporosis, amenorrhea, increased susceptibility to infection, impaired recovery from illness, and so on. Plus, being underweight can result in fatigue and as a busy collegiette^TM we need all the energy we can get!

If, for whatever reason, you need to gain weight, it should be easy, right? Just super-size it and eat a lot of junk food, right? Wrong. While a little junk food won't kill you, eating too much of it—even when trying to gain weight—can be unhealthy and make you feel sick, tired, and unmotivated to continue your weight gain plan. And although magazines are full of advice about how to drop those ten pounds, there is little good advice out there for those of us who want to, and even need to, put on weight. So here, from Her Campus to all the skinny girls out there, is a guide to how to gain some healthy curves.

What it takes:

Gaining weight comes down to basic math: take in more calories than you put out. According to the McKinley Health Center, it takes about 3,500 extra calories to gain a pound, so since gaining 1-2 pounds per week is a pretty good goal (that way some of it can be muscle) you should aim to add at least an extra 500-1,000 calories to your daily intake.

And if you love moving, and I know I do, don't despair! Thirty minutes of exercise, enjoyed four or five times per week, doesn't only keep you in shape, but also increases your appetite and makes some of that weight gain become muscle gain. You actually don't have to sit on a sofa all day to gain the weight.

What you want to do is try to include a mixture of strength training and cardio in your routine, but do be sure not to overdo it. "Regular exercise for about 30 minutes a day helps [increase appetite], but don't over-exercise or you will have to also make up the calories burned," says dietitian Joanne Larsen, of www.dietitian.com.

How to do it:

Gaining is no fun if you have to count every calorie and weigh every ounce. Plus, what busy collegiette^TM has time for that? Instead of fixating on numbers and amounts, follow these simple tips and gain weight the healthy and easy way.

• Eat when you're hungry. This one sounds like a no-brainer, but it's really important. Since you're trying to gain weight, you want to eat as much, and as often, as possible. Don't limit yourself to three square meals a day—instead, keep nutritious, calorie-rich snacks on hand and munch whenever you have an appetite. "Plan ahead" advises Larsen. Some of my favorite snacks are granola bars in between classes (chocolate + granola + nuts = YUM) and nut/dried fruit trail mixes before bed (I love adding prunes—and, no, I'm not over ninety).