seasonal weight cycles ?

In the winter, the cold weather dies make me hungrier, but also I'm in the habit of eating more warming, comfort food. Plus there is Christmas (and thanks giving for the us) with all the indulgent food that incorporates.

Another thing is that in the summer I'm more likely to eat and then get up and go out as its still light. In the winter I finish my meal and sit by the fire, and a glass of red wine or a piece of chocolate just seems so fitting... sigh. That accounts for my winter weight gain. Funnily enough I'm hyper ware of this and have been for the last few years. My lowest weight for the year has always been Christmas eve!

Yeah, I seem to be hungrier in the late fall and crave comfort foods. On the other hand, sometime in early fall, I have a 3-4 lb "whoosh" where I lose excess water. All of a sudden, my rings are fitting looser and my feet don't swell. I figure they balance each other out. On the other hand, when it warms up in the spring/early summer I gain a couple of pounds (water weight from the heat and humidity) but I don't want to eat as much and want lighter fare.

We have a lot of cultural food-related things that happen in the fall and winter, like holidays, as well as ideas about season-appropriate "comfort food" that are often high calorie. Some people may change their exercise level as the weather gets colder and the days get shorter. Those of us who work in education or have school aged children have various school-related events in the fall that might affect our activity and eating. Those things aren't usually the case in the summer, when there are fewer holidays that involve food, our ideas about food tend more toward fresh produce and lighter dishes, and the weather and schedules may allow us to exercise more.