Losing Weight From College

Want to share your transformation story? Whether you lost weight or gained muscle, I want to hear from you! Email me at kolsen@washingtonian.com.

Turning point: My weight gain started as a side effect of the medicine I was taking. I found myself eating more and doing less. I wanted to make a change because I was miserable being so big. Everybody started to make fat nicknames for me. I couldn’t even tie my shoes by myself and I was always out of breath. I had to make a change to feel good about myself again and actually be okay with myself when I looked in the mirror.

Exercise: My Sport&Health trainer Aaron and I usually do a lot of total body strength training to improve lean muscle. We work in all planes of motion and focus on a variety of exercises. I work out with him twice a week. He also taught me how to use all the equipment at the gym and how to create my own workouts.

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Diet: Before, I used to eat maybe five or six times a day. I ate everything I could find. I didn’t care because I thought,

How she stuck with it: After I started seeing the results I was getting from working out, I started to get more motivated. I made goals of how I was going to lose weight, fit into all the cute clothes, and show off my new body to the people who made fun of me because I was fat.

Transformation: I lost 41 pounds. My legs got slimmer and muscular. My arms and shoulders got smaller. My stomach got flatter, and I lost the layers of fat on my side. I have no trouble breathing anymore and it’s easy to go up stairs now. I got stronger and can push five to six plates on the sled now. I can go out dancing and join my parents for long walks.

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How she felt then vs. now: Before I started working with my trainer, I felt disgusting. When I was getting ready to go out and tried on literally everything in my closet, I always had a breakdown and would start tearing up because it was so frustrating. Then my mom would have to tie my shoes because I couldn’t. I had a triple chin. I couldn’t physically participate in all the activities that everyone else could. I wouldn’t go to the pool because I was too embarrassed. I would make my friends go to an unpopular beach far away because there were no people there. I hated myself so much.

Now, I feel amazing. I keep looking in the mirror and taking pictures, and I like the pictures people take of me! It has been a long time since I willingly let someone take a picture of me. I look good in the clothes that I want to wear. I’m so happy! My trainer Aaron is the best! If it wasn’t for him I could never have done this.

Newfound body love: I’m still amazed at how I can move the sled. I feel so proud when people compliment me. Now, I truly believe if I try hard enough, I can accomplish anything. I’m looking forward to attending college and meeting new friends.

How To Lose Weight/eat Healthy/do Workouts In College

Workout wisdom: Get a personal trainer if you can. My trainer pushed me when I didn’t have the self-confidence to push myself. The most important thing he taught me was to always push myself to do better.

Sometimes I didn’t want to go to the gym and sometimes I wanted to eat everything I shouldn’t eat, but I kept reminding myself of how I’m going to look like if I do keep going to the gym and keep eating healthy. Whenever you feel like you want to give up, just remind yourself of the goal you set and how amazing it’ll be when you achieve it.When Lori Odegaard was visiting her parents over Thanksgiving break in 2016, she struggled to walk up their stairs. As she stood at the top of the 10 steps gasping for breath, she worried that something was wrong.

“I couldn’t catch my breath back again and it was very alarming to me because I was like, ‘There’s no way I should be struggling to get air, ’” Odegaard, 24, a student at North Dakota State University, told . “That was a bit of a red flag for me and it was at that point that I was like this has just gotten out of hand. I’ve got to do something.”

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While Odegaard had always been overweight, she lost about 30 pounds when she was a junior in high school. But then she gained it back “plus 30 or 40 more pounds.”

When she felt winded walking up the steps, she decided to lose weight. Starting at Christmas break, she cut her portions in half and started walking 30 minutes a day. But returning to college complicated her plan.

“It was really hard because my friends would eat whatever they wanted and I really had to stay on track. I would try to eat a salad with every meal, ” she said. “I thought that cutting out bread and starches and junk food … (would work).”

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It did. She lost 40 pounds. While she changed how much she ate, she also exercised more. But then she experienced some health complications. Odegaard showed signs of polycystic ovarian syndrome, and doctors also suspected she had fibroids or endometriosis. She underwent surgery and doctors discovered she had a blood clot “the size of a baseball that was decaying in my uterus.” During this experience, she didn’t focus as much on exercise and eating.

“It created really unhealthy eating habits for me honestly because I thought that eating nothing was better, ” Odegaard said. “It was just a learning lesson.”

She started counting her calories. She often swaps foods, such as ground turkey instead of ground beef or sugar-free condiments for regular ones.

Diet & Weight Loss

“That has been the most successful thing I have come upon in my weight-loss journey because it has taught me a good relationship with eating food, ” she said. “I can eat wholesome foods and when I’m out and about I can go to Starbucks and get coffee. It’s allowing balance and really eating in moderation.”

Odegaard also changed how she exercised. At first she shied away from lifting because she thought it would make her look “bulky, ” but she now incorporates it into her exercise routine.

“That whole thing is completely false, ” she said. “I do about 10 to 20 minutes of cardio and then I do the rest of the time with weight training.”

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“When I started four years ago I set the goal … to lose 100 pounds, ” Odegaard said. “Now that I’ve hit this I’m like, ‘Wow, I can do anything I set my mind to and it doesn’t matter how long it takes.’”

Even though she’s pleased with her success, she is setting more goals. She might try to lose another 30 to 40 pounds and she wants to run a half-marathon.

“I’m really happy where I’m at, ” she said. “I don’t know how long it’s going to take me to (train for a half-marathon) but that is my next goal.”

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Taking a lot of pictures kept Lori Odegaard motivated because she was able to see how her body changed during her weight loss.Courtesy Lori Odegaard

While Odegaard set her goals, she didn't force them into a timeline. She simply wanted to lose 100 pounds. Soon after starting, she realized that gaining weight took a long time and so would losing it.

“It’s really hard no matter how much you lose and it takes a lot of strength and determination, ” she said. “Just don’t be too hard on yourself.”

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While a health emergency first stalled Odegaard’s weight loss, she also plateaued because what she was doing when it came to eating no longer worked. That's when she focused on having a calorie deficit, making sure she ate fewer calories than she needed.

When Odegaard was at her heaviest weight she didn’t want to see any pictures of herself. But she started taking them to see if she could notice progress. Seeing the difference in her “before” and “after” pictures kept her motivated.

“When I first started I was so embarrassed of myself. But now looking back I wish I would have taken more, ” she said. “When I was feeling down I would take a picture and put them side-by-side and remind myself, ‘This is how far you’ve gotten. Look how much you’ve done already.’”   

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Meghan Holohan is a contributing writer who covers health and parenting for . She enjoys cooking, yoga, reading, music and walking her two rescue dogs. Follow her on Twitter to see her recent stories.“I’d been overweight for so much of my life, ” says Jenkins, who at the time was a 278-pound freshman at East Tennessee State University. “I never had a specific weight goal other than to get below 200. I did want to be a size 8 in jeans, though.”

We’ll spoil the story a bit: She got there. It was enough of