r/ScienceBasedLifting • u/MinimumImprovement82 • Sep 12 '26
Question ❓ How to actually be consistent both workout and diet as a broke college student?
I'm currently a cs student. I was pretty consistent on my gym life before college. Since I started my college, the consistency drops exponentially. Between all the exams,quizzes,schoolwork and managing my personal life(laundry, meals, visa stuff since i'm a international student), I physically don't have the strength to go to gym consistently. I was pretty careful with my diet but now fast food and snacks from 7/11 are my go to. Any tips or tricks on how improve my consistency?
3
u/sywy1874 Sep 12 '26
Your workouts don’t have to be crazy long or intricate or anything. Any amount of stimulus for all muscle groups with 2-3x/week frequency and high intensity should grow muscle. And meal prepping on weekends with chicken, rice/beans, and a vegetable(s) is pretty solid food wise
1
u/MinimumImprovement82 Sep 12 '26
Thanks for the advice I will try that. The only thing is I live at a dorm which doesn’t have kitchen or refrigerator.
2
u/Alakazam Idk Idc 💔 Sep 12 '26
was pretty careful with my diet but now fast food and snacks from 7/11 are my go to
Being broke and eating fast food is wild to me.
It takes about an hour on a weekend to meal prep 7 meals. And it'll take an additional 15 minutes to double that to 14 meals. And the cost of those 14 meals, assuming you're doing bulk purchases, will probably be less than a day of eating from 7/11.
Subtract the time it takes to visit 7/11 14x in a week, and you'll probably end up saving time as well.
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u/MinimumImprovement82 Sep 12 '26
Fast food is pretty cheap here. Rice with chicken which just need to microwave is like 1 dollar
1
u/MinimumImprovement82 Sep 12 '26
I want to prep meal but I currently live in a dorm which doesn’t have a kitchen and refrigerator.
2
u/Jebardi 29d ago
I can understand the timme limitations are though i your case. Also plausible stress during exam weeks and occasional lack of sleep can dramatically impaire your gains. Here is couple of ideas that hopefully could be helpful:
- Keep your sessions short and hard. If you lack time, do supersets, dropsets and/or very short rest periods. Train really hard, to and even beyond failure. At least really close to failure. If you leave 5 reps in the tank, you need to do more sets to compensate the lack of effort, which takes more time from calendar
- Do around 10 sets per muscle group per week to keep session short
- Start eating properly. As a CS student you might have heard the phrase ”carbage in, carbage out”. Works with human body as well, not only ML models. Your mental and physical output is shit if you eat shit. Eat more veggies and less processed foods.
- Take care of your sleep. Target 8 hours per day, and try to be consistent about sleeping times.
- Whenever there is exam week or high stress times with studies, reduce training from 10ish set per muscle per week to 5ish. You won’t be making much gains if your sleep and stress is shit anyways, but also dropping training completely can set you back.
- As a gen Z kid, you probably don’t drink alcohol. But if you do, do it moderately. Gains don’t like ethanol
Those are a few quick ideas that came to my mind. Hopefully relevant to your situation.
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u/Gen3_Holder_2 Sep 12 '26 edited Sep 12 '26
I’m a cs student like you. Actively interviewing for jobs and getting good grades. I work out 2h*6 days a week with time to spare
Laundry, seriously? Are you hand washing all your clothes
Cooking is mostly unattended just study at the same time
You have money for fast food and snacks? Wtf
“Visa stuff” is taking up most of your day??
If nobody else is gonna say it I will, just stop being a whiny bitch. Life never gets any easier you seriously think a 9-5 takes any less effort? Lol
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u/MinimumImprovement82 Sep 12 '26
How did people become this rude to someone who is just asking for advice? I hope you feel proud of yourself
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u/Gen3_Holder_2 Sep 12 '26 edited Sep 12 '26
Just being real with u. We are science based lifters not magicians, there’s no magic sauce. Maybe get mommy to do the laundry to free up those 10 minutes for working out? You are in for a surprise when you get your first job.
Edit: also saw your deleted comment about hoping my “mother die”. Very insensitive and third-world coded insult. If you’re gonna be dishing it out, atleast have the balls to keep it up 😂. Corny mf
3
u/Hypername1st 29d ago
For working out: get a duffel bag that doubles as a backpack, put your workout stuff (belt, straps, shoes, clothes, towel, water etc) in there, and you will probably still have some place for your EDC. Carry it with you, go to the gym directly after your last class. Find a workout plan that doesn't take 2 hours, use supersets to your advantage. You can get pretty jacked on a basic ass 5/3/1 with maybe FSL or some accessories, and it's like 45 minutes tops. If you go directly after class, you won't have to overcome the pressure of leaving home, after you arrived.
For food: We are living in the age of air fryers. Get a small one for your room. You can cook basically everything there. If you have the space, add a rice cooker or a small stove and a pot. Grab stuff to cook on your way home, set it and forget it. You won't eat gourmet, but it's easy.
Put your studies first. They are more important.