While some University students gorge on fried food and refuse to exercise, Katherine McGehee and Ryan Murphy eat balanced meals and work out daily.Since coming to the University in August, Murphy, business freshman, lost between 15 and 20 pounds. McGehee, landscape architecture freshman, lost 14 pounds. McGehee and Murphy bucked the trend that many freshmen college students gain the “freshman 15.” Julie Hupperich, associate director of the Student Health Center, said freshmen typically gain a few pounds their first year of college, but at the University, Hupperich has seen the “freshman 15” shrink to the “freshman five.”Both students took many steps to achieve their weight losses.McGehee often works out at the University Student Recreation Complex and eats healthy meals. “I live next to the UREC, so I work out there a lot,” McGehee said. “Every day I eat the same thing: salad with dressing on the side.”Murphy likes to run the campus lakes and tries to avoid unhealthy food.”I will go around the lakes with my friends,” Murphy said. “At the dining hall, I always get boiled chicken instead of fried chicken.”Murphy suggests eating smaller meals and resisting late night eating as ways to keep the pounds off.”Some days I will split up my meals instead of eating three larger meals,” Murphy said. “I also try to stay away from the fourth meal.”For Murphy, weight loss is a way to remain healthy and look better.”Being overweight has always kind of made me feel like I couldn’t quite be my full self around others,” McGehee said. “I believe people are more judgmental to people that do not look like models.” Students often struggle with changing diets from high school to college.Nutrition instructor Judith Myhand said students gain weight because they no longer have parents fixing healthy meals on a daily basis.”Weight gain comes about when students leave home and now have more responsibility for their food choices,” Myhand said.Students active in high school see a drop off in the amount they exercise when in college, which can lead to weight gain.”Some students go from being a high school athlete to being a regular college student, and they no longer have an exercise schedule,” Hupperich said.In addition to food, liquid calories can add up. Anything from a soft drink to a frappuccino can add extra calories.”Students discount the amount of calories they get out of drinks,” Hupperich said. “The key to weight loss is making healthy choices, watching portion sizes and staying active.”Besides proper dieting, Hupperich suggests exercising three to five times a week for at least 30 to 45 minutes. She said it takes a 500-calorie reduction a day for a week to lose a pound a week. At the same time, a 500-calorie increase each day for a week can cause a pound of weight gain.Myhand believes after a while, students begin to eat merely for entertainment, and she advised instead of having entertainment food, students should stock up on fruits and healthy options.Myhand said the best foods to eat are a variety of fruits and vegetables, whole grains, low fat dairy and lean meats.—-Contact Michael Lambert at [email protected]