Anyone else get hungrier during the winter/colder months?

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

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.

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.

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!

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."

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.

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!!

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.

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

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.

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!