Winter Weight Tracker

When It’s Wet And Cold Outside, Finding The Motivation To Eat And Exercise Properly Can Be Low On The Priority List. Monique Mckenzie Has Some Helpful Motivational Tips And Tricks To Avoid Winter Weight Gain.

- Monique Mckenzie

As humans, our bodies have evolved with the seasons to eat heavily in the harvest season (autumn) and keep weight on in the winter to protect from the cold and lack of food. We naturally crave warm foods and the fats to protect our organs and skin from wild winds, cooler temperatures and less sunlight.

There’s no question it’s easier to make healthy choices in summer – there’s an abundance of produce in season, the sun is shining, the days are long – and we feel naturally motivated to head outdoors and get active. But come the colder, dreary months of winter, eating clean and slimming down can seem a lot more challenging. With shorter, darker days, winter is enough to derail our motivation to exercise, too.

A recent discovery may explain one reason for winter weight gain. A January 2018 study by University of Alberta researchers has shown the fat cells that lie just beneath our skin shrink when exposed to the blue light emitted by the sun.

“When the sun’s blue light wavelengths – the light we can see with our eye – penetrate our skin and reach the fat cells just beneath, lipid droplets reduce in size and are released out of the cell. In other words, our cells don’t store as much fat,” says Peter Light, senior author of the study.

“If you flip our findings around, the insufficient sunlight exposure we get eight months of the year may be promoting fat storage and contribute to the typical weight gain some of us have over winter. Perhaps that pathway – exposure to sunlight that directs our sleep-wake patterns – may also act in a sensory manner, setting the amount of fat humans burn depending on the season. You gain weight in the winter, and then burn it off in the summer.”

Peter adds, “This could be evolutionary process, supported by the fact that unlike many other mammals, our fat is spread out all over our bodies.”