Surveys show people tend to gain five to seven pounds on average during the winter months, according to Lawrence J. Cheskin, MD, founder, and director of the Johns Hopkins Weight Management Center as reported by WebMD. Yikes! Don’t let worrying about winter weight dampen your holiday fun, though.
“Although seasonal weight gain varies from person to person, there have been surveys that show an average of a five to seven pound gain in weight in winter,” says Lawrence J. Cheskin, MD, founder and director of the Johns Hopkins Weight Management Center and associate professor at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health in Baltimore.
Yes, sadly, winter weight gain is not just a myth – it’s totally normal. Sigh! One study, by the University of Exeter, blamed this on our animalistic urges, which are mean’t to help us to survive against the harsh winter elements.
“Although seasonal weight gain varies from person to person, there have been surveys that show an average of a five to seven pound gain in weight in winter,” says Lawrence J. Cheskin, MD, founder and director of the Johns Hopkins Weight Management Center and associate professor at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health in Baltimore.
Weight fluctuation is a normal yet often misunderstood phenomenon. When you realize you have gained 5 pounds in a day, your first instinct might be to panic. In reality, this weight gain is temporary and nothing to worry about. It’s impossible to gain five pounds of fat in a day – to do this, you’d have to eat over 20,000 calories in 24 hours.
While overeating can make you gain weight over a few weeks or months, your weekend weight gain probably won’t do much serious damage. If you find yourself a few pounds heavier, you’re probably retaining some extra fluid.
Rachel Linder/ Eat This, Not That! Seasonal weight gain varies from person to person, but certain phenomena during the holiday season tend to tip the scales in a less desirable direction for most.
How much weight gain is normal in winter?
Surveys show people tend to gain five to seven pounds on average during the winter months, according to Lawrence J. Cheskin, MD, founder, and director of the Johns Hopkins Weight Management Center as reported by WebMD. Yikes!
Yes, really! Researchers suggest that we have a natural tendency to overeat in the winter because, historically, food was more scarce.
When the sun is shining and the air is warm in the summer, it’s much easier to hop out of bed and be productive. However, when the cold takes over and the sun starts setting at 4 p.m., all you want to do sometimes is stay in bed.
In an effort to keep diets in check, many people tend to skip meals in anticipation of bingeing later. However, this is not advised. “Pretend like the overeating is not even going to happen and you’ll be able to control it better,” Smith says.
Although this may seem like a positive thing, a jump in our metabolism may actually lead to weight gain instead of fat burn, if you’re not careful. According to research from Maastricht University in the Netherlands, our metabolism increases in an effort to burn more energy to help us stay warm.
It’s not news that we tend to consume far more calories when we dine out than when we cook at home. The cold weather tends to move date night to restaurants for a number of months when your more active ideas are limited. As a result, more nights spent trying new restaurants puts you and your honey in a position to overeat more frequently. Try splitting your entrees or going without snacks at the movie theater to avoid excess calorie intake.
What is the average BAC in winter?
1 and March 31 than any other period throughout the year. The study revealed the average BAC to be above 0.06 percent almost 75 percent of the time during this range, while it reaches this level only 50 percent of the time the rest of the year.
This is because being underweight was a much bigger problem for our ancestors than for us and our body naturally wants to store food in seasons when food is scarce.
It makes sense that your body would store fat in the cold, but according to researchers, being in unpleasant weather can actually stimulate calorie burn. The Atlantic reports that shivering increases your metabolic rate so you burn more calories. The authors of the study, which was conducted at the Maastricht University Medical Center in The Netherlands, even go as far to suggest that exposure to mildly cold weather “may provide a healthy and sustainable alternative strategy for increasing energy expenditure.”
How to avoid weight gain in winter?
How To Avoid Winter Weight Gain: Seek Help For Depression. If you think your overeating is a symptom of seasonal affective disorder, you may need professional help, Freedhoff advises. Talk to your doctor about treatments such as using a light box to lift your mood, or seeing a therapist.
We Feel Down During The Winter Months. Seasonal affective disorder (SAD), a type of depression that typically affects people over the winter, may cause sufferers to eat more when it’s cold and dark.
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