I can't imagine how hard dieting in college must be, probably as hard as dieting as an adolescent in a home that is not conducive to dieting (ie. mom does the food shopping and cooking and she doesn't watch what she's eating/cooking for the family to make sure it is healthy/low cal).
Regardless, it IS absolutely possible to eat healthy and lose weight in college, so get your mind out of that pessimistic hole. YOU have the control to choose what you eat and how you eat.
Yes, it is inconvenient that bad food choices are the easiest and most plentiful for you. Yes, people really DO prepare their foods ahead of time so that they have a healthy calorie-conscious meal at their fingertips. I pack a backup sandwich for my 2yr old daughter as well as baggies of finger foods (strawberries, blueberries, nuts, grapes, tomatoes, cucumbers, etc) jut in case we are at a point in our day where stopping for food is inconvenient or the food choices available to us are poor. I'll pack her a half peanut butter sandwich, a turkey sandwich or a cheese sandwich or something like that. Most of the time, this is how we eat while we're out because more often than not, all the food choices we have around us are awful or the restaurants aren't conducive to feeding a toddler (ie. the restaurant doesn't have high chairs, etc). See? You and I have totally different lives and needs, yet we both have the same need of finding healthy options. I choose to bring food with me, even if it ends up just being a last resort. You could probably carry granola bars or fruit with you quite easily and be very well off.
'Low calorie foods' doesn't mean eating things like lettuce all day. You need calories every day in order for your body to function, so trying to starve yourself to force your body to use its stored energy wont work the way you want it to- just as you find it easier to grab a slice of pizza vs. preparing a grilled chicken meal for yourself, your body find it easier to feed off of its muscles before using up fat stores. I know, you think that is unfair, but the body doesn't really want to give up fat (plus it isn't an easy source of fuel- carbs and proteins are faster for the body to utilize), so when you eat too few calories, your body will actually start attacking your lean tissue first. Sure, you'll lose weight, but the majority of what you'd be losing would be muscle and water...very little of it would be fat.
However, here is what you can do to get yourself on the right track.
Go to the calculators section of this site. Find out your BMR (this will show you the bare minimum calories you need to eat each day to fuel your body's basic daily functions that cannot be fueled by your current fat stores) and then also us the Harris Benedict Equation to find out your daily maintenance calorie level. Once you have these two figures, you'll want to keep your daily calorie intake somewhere between these two figures, preferably closer to the BMR figure than to the HBE figure. Don't jump right to eating at your BMR level, you'll have nowhere to reduce your calories from if you hit a plateau. I suggest somewhere between 300-500 calories above your BMR to start with.
This is where you can lose weight by creating a calorie deficit that isn't harmful to your body. You won't have that lethargic feeling you mentioned and you'll be able to sustain a diet much easier.
Now, on to your food choices... They're really, really NOT good. I understand you're in college, but every meal you mentioned is dense with calories and low on nutrition when you should be looking for foods dense with nutrition (ie. vitamins and minerals) but low on calories.
Your average slice of pizza has anywhere between 400-700 calories in it. So if you're eating 2.5 for lunch, it wouldn't be far fetched to say you're eating between 1000-1750 calories for one meal, and that isn't even including birthday cake, drinks, etc.
Celebrations and such are always hard places to stick to a diet, but here's what I do. I eat as well as I can every day at home where I have total control over what I make and eat, and then save eating things like pizza and cake for when the occasion calls for it, such as at a birthday party or whatnot. However, if I were partying every weekend, both days, and also a night or two during the week, this wouldn't work. You're going to have to figure out a plan you can accept that allows you to eat those things occasionally but not give into eating those foods each time. Yes, bring something with you to eat instead of those foods, or be sure to eat your healthy meal before you go and just share a dessert with your friends. There's no one telling you you HAVE to eat the food that is provided. No one is forcing you. You can work around these complications.
It is true that you will have greater influence over your weight loss with diet than exercise. With diet, you can decrease a lot or a little calories a day from your routine, whereas, exercise will offer fantastic benefits to your well being, but will not be the main calorie blaster you want it to be. Look at it this way: if you're trying to knock out 1000 calories from your day, wouldn't it be easier to pick out foods from your diet to reduce the calories vs. finding sustainable activities to burn off 1000 cals? Look at those 2.5 pieces of pizza you had- didn't those rack up some calories fairly quick? I think it is necessary to mention, however, that I'm not saying you should not eat anything for lunch, I'm just taking the foods you mentioned for the day and showing you where you can easily change your choices to cut out your overall calories for the day. I suggest a coldcut sandwhich for lunch in place of the pizza and cutting out the ice cream altogether. That leads me to my other point.
You need to front load your calories for the day, not back load them. You're starting your day off with a clean slate, trying to eat very few calories but find yourself crashing and then eating a bunch the later into the day/night it gets. You're eating too little at the beginning of the day when your body needs the calories the most, and eating too much later in the day when your body doesn't need so many calories. Get over the idea that each day you can conquer eating by not eating. You'll be sluggish, irritable and ravenous as the day goes on. Then, you'll be less likely to be able to control your eating. Trust me, eat a good breakfast balanced with carbs, proteins and a small amount of fat (like eggs, toast and fruit), this will sustain you better and you'll be better able to continue making good choices throughout the day.
Exercise- yes, you should be exercising even though I mentioned above that it won't be your main catalyst for weight loss. However, what it WILL do is keep your current muscle mass so that the weight you DO lose is mostly fat, not muscle and water. Trust me, you'll look and feel so much better if the weight you're losing is mostly fat vs. mostly water and muscle. I find that doing resistance training (google it or search this site if you're not sure what I'm talking about) 3 days a week and doing cardio (running/walking/etc) 2-3 times a week works wonders.
It's not easy, I know that. But you do have the power to not let food or the situations with food defeat you. You're going to have to take a good look at the situations you're usually in (parties, going out with friends, etc) to figure out the best way around the food challenges. You can totally take control and you'll be so proud of yourself when you do!
Hope this helps!
L
