Anyone else get hungrier during the winter/colder months?

EnergyBender667

Winter has officially began in the city I live in. With the weather change, I've noticed I've been getting hungrier than usual. Does anyone else experience this? If so, how do you stop yourself from eating more?

RunsWithBees

In the colder months I drink a lot of hot tea (black and herbal, no sweetener) and I also make big pots of homemade vegetable soup, warm, hearty and filling

Terytha

I think its because shivering burns calories lol.

I try to make warmer, heartier meals. Stews and stuff. If it warms up my insides, that's the best way to feel content.

Mcwi3681

Yes. I crave greasy foods like hashbrowns when it starts getting cold and throughout winter. I just try to drink more hot tea and ignore it.

MsOpus

Snowing right now. I just want a big ol' pot of chili and some hot chocolate. Also just wanna curl up under a blanket with a book.
Exercise? Today? But it's a snow day!

LyndaBSS

I actually am hungrier overall in the hotter weather. In the colder, I do like stews and soups, but other than those, I eat the same food items year round.

Annie_01

We are cooling off where I live too. Yesterday and today we only hit 96 degrees...down from triple digits at the first of the week. So far this fall I have had no urges for hot soups! We are hoping for the high 80's by the end of the week. I still don't think that I will want hot soup.

odette0188

Let’s not forget that we are primal beings.

For hundreds/thousands/millions of years all living things have stored up food and get fat to survive the winter months. We just haven’t realised it’s not quite necessary in the 21st century!

AnnPT77

I find I'm more inclined to overeat as the days get shorter. All I've figured out to do is to try to keep the reins on it.

This is year 4 of maintenance. I've crept up a bit each Fall, but drop a little in Summer, so am still in a healthy range. Thinking I'll try a SAD light this year, not just for this reason (I live not just in the North, but in a region that tends toward Winter overcast (Great Lakes region).

ElizabethKalmbach

My appetite remains the same, but my exercise calories to eat back often drop because I do a lot of walking outside with my dogs, and once the snow flies, my dogs are all, "NAW, MOM. I'M GOOD. LET'S GO BACK TO BED."

missysippy930

I make batches of soup every week during colder months. Seasons make very little difference in my appetite, but but hot, humid weather is miserable. I, and my dog, prefer colder weather for our walks. If you’re bundled up it’s invigorating. Much easier than 90 degrees with high humidity. Hiking in a snow fall preferred to rain.

88olds

EnergyBender667 wrote: »

Does anyone else experience this?
If so, how do you stop yourself from eating more?

Yes. But not all that sure that I didn’t eat more. But eating more doesn’t have to mean more calories.

I benefit a lot in weight loss in that eating the same stuff a lot doesn’t bother me. And that’s eating the same stuff a lot, not all the time.

In summer the center of my plan for dinners was a big salad with some kind of lean protein. When the weather turned cold salad lost its appeal. Not a plug for their plan but I got the center of this approach from Weight Watchers. They have something they call zero point soup. You can find a receipt on the internet. I bet its on MFP but I haven’t looked. The way we made, it was just a big pot of veggies in vegetable broth out of a carton.

Adapting to MFP, I think most green veggies are 35 calories per cup or less. We also made a lot of use of carrots, onions and mushrooms. All in the same calorie range. But be careful about things like corn and potatoes, that will start changing the math. But if everything that goes in the pot is 35 calories per cup, coming out its going to be about the same. We made this with very little broth, just our preference.

So I’d start dinner with 1 1/2 cups of soup. Round up to 55 calories. Then I would add the precooked protein, and some brown rice, also pre cooked. Depending on how the day was going I could tinker with the numbers. Season it any way I wanted that day. But for about 300 calories I was able to get a warm and filling dinner. Adding 250 calories of brown rice/grilled chicken to the 55 calories of this soup is a lot of food. More that some folks will care to eat. But try it. You don’t need to eat the whole thing.

Just the thing on a cold evening in winter.

BTW, I added the protein and rice separately to keep control of the numbers. I thought that it would tend to sink to the bottom if I put it in the soup pot.

LeiLaura

I am definitely noticing this this week. Harder and harder to get to the gym, just want to curl up on the sofa, which means munchies... Hoping it'll pass.

Joanna2012B

I actually lose easier in the winter than the summer. Beer and Ice Cream get me every time. This is my favourite time of year to run so I burn more calories in the cooler months. I am not hungrier, I just crave different food this time of year. More roasts, soups and stews!!

RelCanonical

AnnPT77 wrote: »

I find I'm more inclined to overeat as the days get shorter. All I've figured out to do is to try to keep the reins on it.

This is year 4 of maintenance. I've crept up a bit each Fall, but drop a little in Summer, so am still in a healthy range. Thinking I'll try a SAD light this year, not just for this reason (I live not just in the North, but in a region that tends toward Winter overcast (Great Lakes region).

Same here. It's not necessarily the cold, but the dark that makes me want to eat. Also Great Lakes region here, can't wait until February when it starts to get lighter again and we get more of those sunny winter days. Right now it's all lake effect weather.

rainbow198

My fall/winter life is very different from the spring/summer.

My appetite is the same in the winter, but I crave hearty foods and warm drinks. Making homemade soups and drinking warm herbal teas really helps.

My meals are different too. In the winter I'm drinking less protein smoothies (fruits/veggie based) and more hot cereals, oatmeal, warm salads etc.

I still workout/move daily, but my activity levels drop as I'm not walking around outdoor festivals, doing yard work, gardening, playing sports, hiking, rollerblading, taking shorter walks with the pup etc. compared to the warmer months.

For these reasons maintaining a 10 pound range year around works well for me. Naturally I'm usually on the higher end in the winter and stay in the lower side in the middle/end of summer.

COGypsy

I go the other way—i generally drop a few pounds naturally once winter comes. Between the cold, dark and holidays, it’s all I can do to slug through bare necessities most days. Procuring and eating extra food—whether it’s in my kitchen or at the store—just requires energy I don’t have during this time of year.

nighthawk584

I'm hungry no matter what the season, but I do like more hearty, comfort foods in the winter.

LeiLaura

Absolutely. I've been ravenous these past couple of weeks, but this week I really couldn't fight it. I'm still eating under maintenance, but only just, and because I'm basically skipping proper meals to compensate for all my unplanned grazing. Not good, I know, and trying to get a grip again, but just wanted to say I totally sympathise. I don't know whether it's evolutionary, ie fat stores were historically necessary to keep us warm in winter, or if I'm just making excuses because all I want to do in this weather and darkness is hibernate. I keep reminding myself that MFP / the calories in and out don't know what season it is, and as long as we keep to the maths, we shouldn't gain. Perhaps we need to be ok with losing slower in the darkest months, though, or perhaps even maintaining. Eating proper meals at maintenance has got to be better than constant grazing but still losing. I think we need to listen to our bodies. It's working out when it's our bodies talking vs our mental gremlins wanting munchies that's the hard part! Good luck, we got this. We know what to do

RelCanonical

LeiLaura wrote: »

Absolutely. I've been ravenous these past couple of weeks, but this week I really couldn't fight it. I'm still eating under maintenance, but only just, and because I'm basically skipping proper meals to compensate for all my unplanned grazing. Not good, I know, and trying to get a grip again, but just wanted to say I totally sympathise. I don't know whether it's evolutionary, ie fat stores were historically necessary to keep us warm in winter, or if I'm just making excuses because all I want to do in this weather and darkness is hibernate. I keep reminding myself that MFP / the calories in and out don't know what season it is, and as long as we keep to the maths, we shouldn't gain. Perhaps we need to be ok with losing slower in the darkest months, though, or perhaps even maintaining. Eating proper meals at maintenance has got to be better than constant grazing but still losing. I think we need to listen to our bodies. It's working out when it's our bodies talking vs our mental gremlins wanting munchies that's the hard part! Good luck, we got this. We know what to do

I think grazing is fine, it's the not feeling in control that can cause trouble. Might be worth taking an over-maintenance day and just trying to get back to your regularly scheduled/planned meals while you work on the unintended grazing.

LeiLaura

RelCanonical wrote: »

LeiLaura wrote: »

Absolutely. I've been ravenous these past couple of weeks, but this week I really couldn't fight it. I'm still eating under maintenance, but only just, and because I'm basically skipping proper meals to compensate for all my unplanned grazing. Not good, I know, and trying to get a grip again, but just wanted to say I totally sympathise. I don't know whether it's evolutionary, ie fat stores were historically necessary to keep us warm in winter, or if I'm just making excuses because all I want to do in this weather and darkness is hibernate. I keep reminding myself that MFP / the calories in and out don't know what season it is, and as long as we keep to the maths, we shouldn't gain. Perhaps we need to be ok with losing slower in the darkest months, though, or perhaps even maintaining. Eating proper meals at maintenance has got to be better than constant grazing but still losing. I think we need to listen to our bodies. It's working out when it's our bodies talking vs our mental gremlins wanting munchies that's the hard part! Good luck, we got this. We know what to do

I think grazing is fine, it's the not feeling in control that can cause trouble. Might be worth taking an over-maintenance day and just trying to get back to your regularly scheduled/planned meals while you work on the unintended grazing.

Yes, I think you're right. I'm clearly hungry. If I eat more at meals, maybe it'll put the gremlins to rest. Thank you!

TayaCurragh

I'm the same.

I'm in the UK and I struggle when it starts getting dark early. At the moment it's dark by 4pm and it's not fun. With the lower temperatures I also find it a struggle to get myself to walk rather than drive into the office.

The only plus side is that this summer I brought a classic car so I'm trying to limit driving when it's wet and gritted outside, so I have some motivation to walk!

Katmary71

I just popped in and out of maintenance (was there and am back to cutting back) and I don't know if it's eating more calories or the weather that increased my appetite. I am finding myself less likely to eat my "summer" salad, but some of those veggies also don't taste as good now that they're out-of-season. Things like zucchini and asparagus are less calories than in season produce like butternut squash and apples. I'm definitely wanting soups and chili a lot more now! Even though I mostly work out at home or at the gym it's been harder to get started, I just want to bundle up and read instead.