(HealthDay News) — College is an exciting time. For many students, it’s their first extended stint living away from mom and dad.

But the stress of maintaining good grades, living on a limited income, and getting along with roommates can take its toll, mentally and physically.

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention offers these suggestions for staying healthy at college:

• Get regular medical checkups and vaccinations.
• Get plenty of sleep. Sleep deprivation can lead to bad grades, depressed mood, and difficulty maintaining relationships.

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Getting on that treadmill, elliptical trainer or exercise cycle many of us carefully look at the digital calorie counter built into the machine to see how many calories we have burnt. Based on that we do the math about whether we have burnt enough calories to set off the calories we have consumed during the day.

Can we rely on them to tell us exactly how many calories we’ve burnt? Well, calorie counters may be a broad indication, but they are not really accurate. <

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Principle 2: Consistent Energy Deficits

If you incur an energy deficit of 1,000 kcal per day, you would have accumulated a total deficit of 7,000 kcal in a week and shed 7,000 kcal worth of body fat. This is equivalent to 0.9 kg of body fat! One kilogram of body fat yields 7,700 kcal. Yes, you can shed almost 1.0 kg of body fat per week if you consistently incur an energy deficit of 1,000 kcal per day! But dont take that as a reason to go on a low calorie diet.

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You know, Im all for getting healthier, and educating the American public about how to eat healthier, and to make sure they raise their kids to appreciate healthy, whole foods. But lets face it, we cant force healthy eating down everyones throat, and not everyone is going to choose to eat the low carb diet way at Mickey Ds like me.

And hey, I remember how excited my sister and I got when my parents would head to McDonalds for any reason. We didnt get it often, nor did we get treats like sugary breakfast cereals very often, but McDonalds is sort of a childrens right of passage, and not every kid who eats McDonalds is going to grow into an obese adult.

To think that is just crazy.

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