Watch who you hang out with -- your friends might determine your weight.

Photo: anyeetx, Flickr

School's back, and though many will weather this season of change by developing a protective layer of fat called the Freshman 15, you don't have to be one of them -- make fitness a priority this semester, after studying of course.

And while I'm willing to bet your school has a decent gym, you don't even need one -- there are plenty of great workouts you can do in your dorm room, no matter how big or small. Amie Hoff, master trainer for New York Sports Club, recommends a few simple -- and free -- exercises you can do in the comfort of your own space, like:

• Push-ups -- from your desk, but make sure your desk is against the wall for these. If it's not, take them to the floor.
• Bicep curls -- using your text books as weights.
• Tricep dips -- off the bed.
• Squats and lunges -- using your chair for stability.
• Crunches -- with your text books adding extra weight.
• Cardio blasts -- a couple quick sets of jumping jacks and stadium runs will help burn off that cafeteria food.

That's Fit Club is our feature devoted to you, the reader! We have all learned so much on our paths to becoming more fit, and now it's time to learn from and inspire each other! That's Fit Club members are constantly working to better themselves. Some are perfect; some are not. But all have health on the mind.

Besides showing you off, we want to reward you for all of your hard work! Everlast and Everlast Woman are giving gorgeous workout T-shirts to each featured member! To join, please send Fitz your answers to these questions with a photo of yourself. Time for you to be the motivator!

Name: Kate Gamber

Age: 19

Occupation: College Student

How often do you exercise? Five to six days a week.

What type of exercise do you do? Long distance running, lifting, cardio, LAX.

What gets you to work out, even when you're feeling lazy? I know that I'll thank myself later!

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Several years ago when I still worked in an office environment, we went through a pretty rough stretch. We were all working long hours and were stressed beyond belief. We all pitched in and when we got the job done, my boss gave each of us a six-pack of fancy-schmancy beer and a big bar of chocolate. Hands down, he was the coolest boss in the world.

We never had the dreaded candy bowl at that office, but we did have our fair share of bagels for breakfast and pizza for lunch. Though it was awesome that our boss liked to treat us once in a while, the treats were never very healthful.

Enter The Fruit Guys. This service delivers a box of fresh fruit to the office once a week. What a great idea. (All of you bosses out there, take note!) Not only will this improve employee morale, it will also contribute to better health and weight management which, in turn, improves employee productivity.

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Curious to know how celebrities squeeze fitness into their daily lives? Want to know the secrets of the stars? Bi-weekly our That's Fit fitness expert Fitz sits down with the celebs we want to know more about, and digs out their great and not-so-great methods to staying healthy.

The Hills season finale on December 22 is quickly approaching on MTV, and I was able to catch up with reality star Lo Bosworth for a quick interview. To find out how she stays in shape and what her "realities" are while starring on this hit show, read on.

Fitz: How'd you end up on The Hills? What goes in to that?

Lo: Well, I started out on Laguna Beach back in high school. Then I went away to college. I was at UCSB and I transferred to UCLA my junior year. That was when Lauren and I were able to spend more time together. So I started going out a little bit and sometimes they would be filming. And then at some point, the producers just asked me to re-join the show.

Fitz: You're on a reality show but not necessarily a "performer" in Hollywood. You're supposed to be "real," but do you feel tons of pressure to be thin, beautiful and well dressed all the time?

Will Lo launch her own fashion line? Read on!

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Seeing Maria Menounos now, it's hard to believe she was ever overweight. However, in college, the brunette beauty would easily down five pieces of pizza in a sitting, eventually finding herself in a size 14. It was then that she decided it was time to do something about it.

It didn't happen instantly. "Depriving myself didn't work because, yeah, I'd resist a craving one night, but then it'd come back the next day and it'd be worse." She started eating just a little less pizza, and, by being a little more careful about what she ate, she lost 20 pounds in five months. She lost 20 more pounds over the next six months by adding in exercise.

What I find so impressive about this is that she did it before she was famous, before she had any money. She did hire a trainer once, though for $70: "I hired her for one session, and she wrote out for me a general circuit program of jump rope, steps, push-ups, sit-ups, squats, and lunges." She still has that paper in case the pounds creep back on. However, seeing as how she's kept the weight off for nine years, that doesn't seem likely.

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If you missed our daily postings this past week, we invite you to take some time to catch up on our prior week's news and gear up for a new week of healthy living information and inspiration.

It's a new week and a new look for That's Fit! Have you noticed our new feature boxes on the right-hand site of the page? Make sure to click through to read some of your favorite columns -- The Good, the Fat, and the Hungry, Celebrity News, Fit Kicks with Fitz, and of course don't forget to check in with our experts. And if you're striving for a new look of your own, check out this week's posts for the latest in diet and fitness.

• Jerry O'Connell has been busy pulling his foot from his mouth this week. Find out why.
• Celebrity gawker Perez Hilton took 10 inches off his waist. He wants to look like David Beckham.
• Martha raises some questions about flax seed. Is it really as good for us as we think?
• Settling into college life? Find out how to prevent that "Freshman 15" from creeping up on you. And find out why college campuses are banning cafeteria trays.
  
• The Presidential candidates have selected their running mates. Chris tells you how to pick yours.
• Having chicken for dinner? Margaret shares 20 ways to make it a healthy meal.
• Having trouble giving up your bottled water habit? Kristen exposes the myths behind this useless and wasteful product.
  
  

Have a great week everyone!

Starting college this year? You're at risk of putting on the dreaded 'Freshman 15' -- referring, of course, to the 15 or so pounds you might put on as you adjust to the life of a student. It's nothing to be ashamed of; you're going through lots of changes -- adjusting to dorm life, making new friends, being out on your own for the first time -- so it's really only natural to find comfort in food, and it happens to lots of us.

But consider this piece of wisdom from someone who's been there: It's a lot easier to gain 15 lbs than to lose it. So nip this weight gain in the bud with these tips:

Several of my nieces and nephews are in college now. This summer, while getting things ready for their kids' apartments, my sisters went out and purchased new mattresses and furniture. I thought they were a little nuts for spending that money. When I think back to my first college apartment, my roommate and I had a couch we bought for $10, an entertainment center we found on the side of the road, and a chair we found abandoned at the apartment complex. After reading this article about bedbugs, however, I think my sisters did the right thing by not letting their kids go garbage picking for furniture.

College campuses and dormitories are like a luxury resort for these blood-sucking little critters. Students frequently visit each other's rooms (possibly transporting little friends as they do so). Universities like Texas A&M, Ohio State, Stanford, and the University of Florida have had to deal with outbreaks of bedbugs.

Bedbugs are hard to spot. Waking up with small, red welts is one tell-tale sign. You may also spot tiny black or reddish-brown spots on your sheets.

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Summer is just about at it's end (believe me, it pains me to even write that), which means that kids who went to overnight camp are probably on their way back home. Just the same, freshman college students have just headed off for their new campus life, most likely sharing a dorm room with a person they've only met over the phone or through Facebook. In both cases, these kids probably have a tale to tell about the dreaded snorer they may have had to share a bunk with. And while the snoring they were forced to tolerate may seem like nothing more than an annoyance, it may actually be a sign of a bigger health problem for the snorer.

An article in the journal Archives of Internal Medicine reports that snoring may lead to chronic bronchitis for a good number of people. The study found that snoring places a great deal of stress on the airways, thus increasing inflammation. In fact, researchers discovered that people who reported snoring six or seven nights per week were 68-percent more likely to develop chronic bronchitis than silent sleepers.

So, if you happen to have a snoring roommate (or spouse), perhaps you should suggest they speak with their doctor about it. If nothing else, you'll finally be able to get some rest while they're at their appointment.

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Four of my nieces and nephews are heading back to college this weekend. None of them are freshman this year, but I've certainly noticed changes in all of their health since they went to college. When they were freshman, two of them gained weight by eating too much cafeteria food and not exercising. The other two went on a major fitness kick and really overdid it -- getting far too thin for their frames, consuming lots of unnecessary and potentially unhealthy powdered protein drinks, and ignoring good nutrition.

Maintaining proper health is a challenge for college kids when they first move out on their own. Making poor choices or overeating at the cafeteria, late-night binges, poor sleep habits, and alcohol consumption are just some of the reasons that college freshman don't score an "A" for health. In addition, a lot of high school students play team sports -- when they go to college and that organized activity is gone, their fitness level drops as well.

Healthday offers some tips for avoiding the Freshman 15 (though, according to Jacki, it would be more appropriate to call it the Freshman 5):

• Know your class schedule and plan for healthy foods in between classes. (I remember having a tight time crunch in between classes one year when I was at school. On those days, lunch consisted of a candy bar. When I found the candy bar didn't fill me up, I started buying two. Nice. A much healthier and more economical choice would have been to pack a snack -- like whole-grain crackers and cheese along with a piece of fruit -- in my backpack.)

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Curious to know how celebrities squeeze fitness into their daily lives? Want to know the secrets of the stars? Bi-weekly our That's Fit fitness expert Fitz sits down with the celebs we want to know more about, and digs out their great and not-so-great methods to staying healthy.

If you've been in tune with national sporting news this week, you're probably aware of the big hub-bub created by Mike Nadel, a cranky reporter of the Peoria Journal Star, who wrote a venomous article about the both young and beautiful sideline reporter for ESPN, Erin Andrews. The "big news" and "big deal" was that Erin wore a dress that hit right above her knee (the outrage!), and her dress was not a turtleneck (hussy)! Nadel even noted that Erin went so far as to grope Alfonso Soriano's bicep at a gathering (she was just looking at his scar from a recent surgery).

Here is the truth about Erin. She's a college educated, ambitious, down-to-earth woman who started on a small network and proved her reporting worthy of a high profile on-air position at ESPN. She loves sports and is great at delivering the news we want to know about our favorite athletes, coaches and teams. Erin and I relaxed on a sunny afternoon in both of our alma mater's football stadium, the University of Florida's SWAMP, to chat. She's funny, sarcastic, and truly grateful to have the job she's dreamed of. She often travels with a band of brothers, the mostly male ESPN GameDay crew, and has had to learn the hard way that she really isn't a guy. Some fans with cell phone cameras taught her that.

Fitz: You are pretty great shape! What do you do?

Erin: Traveling for my job makes staying in shape really hard. We're on the road so much, and for me ... it's tough cause I'm one of the only girls on site. I'm really close with the other talent and the broadcasters, so we go out to eat all the time. Today we had hamburgers! Eating on the road is the worst way to eat. Not only that, but I'm surrounded by guys! When you're surrounded by men, you eat and drink like a guy.

Fitz: Not good news for a slender woman like you!

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Staying healthy makes me inspired. Does staying thin, then, make me thinspired? To some degree, I guess it does. I eat right, exercise right, minimize stress, sleep enough, and do all I can to stay healthy, which also happens to help me stay thin. Not skinny. Not bony. Not skeletal. Just more thin than thick, more fit than fat.

Thinspiration is a buzz word used by youngish girls who strive to be skinny, anorexic even. It's a topic Blair at Gettysburg College addresses over at College Candy and what she finds is really quite disturbing. Scour the internet, she says, and you're bound to land at all sorts of anorexia blogs, pro-anorexia websites, and YouTube videos chalk full of crazy dieting tactics and images of girls whose bodies are wasting away. One 24-year-old even features on her website a thinspiration page, wallpapered with skinny-girl photos that mostly give me a sick feeling in my gut and make me realize I'm not all that thinspired after all. Nope. Inspired is what I am -- inspired to be healthy and happy in all of my 135-pound glory.

And you? Are you inspired -- or thinspired?

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One writer over at College Candy says the season is ripe for muffin tops -- not the actual tops of actual muffins, but the excess skin that hangs over the tops of shorts, pants, and skirts when these items of clothing are just a tad too small. This problem, coined the One-Size-Too-Small Syndrome by said writer, affects lots of college-aged girls (one might argue it affects more than just college girls) and should not be mistaken for an overeating problem at all. It's clearly a size issue. You can be a size four and still have a muffin top. All it takes is a size two piece of clothing to cause this all-too-annoying problem.

This female writer from NYU knows what's it like: "I'm definitely not a tiny girl by any means, and I completely understand the battle with body image," she says. "I get a little unhappy anytime I have to purchase something in a large instead of a medium, but if the medium makes me look like a sausage trying to escape its skin, is it really worth wearing? Is it really going to look like you're a size medium to anyone but yourself? Of course not! I may groan when I have to reach for a size larger in that cute little dress or jeans but if it lays just right and fits as intended, so be it."

NYU girl draws from comments made by Stacy London of What Not to Wear when she makes these points: (1) The only person who sees the size of your clothing is you. (2) What matters is the look and if you can pull it off. (3) If you must go up a size to look like you can breathe (or to actually be able to breathe), then bite the bullet and do it.

I get it -- I'm all about feeling good in my clothes. And as for breathing: It's a must have for me. How about you?

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It once was called the "Freshman 15." Now it's the "Freshmen 5" -- 15 was apparently an inflated number -- and even though the tendency for young women to gain five pounds after embarking on a new college experience doesn't seem so devastating, it's still quite alarming, say Canadian researchers.

It's alarming because the weight is typically gained over six or seven months. Putting on weight at this rate can be very problematic.

While there are limitations to the study of this phenomenon -- women who took part in weight-gain research reported only what they ate during the prior 24 hours, for example -- it's clear that colleges need to do more to incorporate physical activity into the lives of female students. And girls entering college should be advised to eat right and exercise well.

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