Why Do We Gain Weight In Winter? And 6 Tips To Keep It Off

Have you ever noticed that for some reason, during the winter months you can't help but gain weight? At first you're not sure if it's just your scheduled dose of body insecurities, but then, the washing machine seems to have shrunk your favorite sweaters and pants, while your underwear, socks, and towels magically seem to be fine... First of all, gaining weight is nothing to worry about. Everyone's weight goes up and down, and as long as you're healthy, you shouldn't give it a second thought. Still, since humans are especially prone to gaining weight during the winter, we thought we'd shed some light on the science behind this phenomenon. Good news: we can (partly) blame evolution!


From an evolutionary perspective, having a little extra weight has many benefits. For example, in the “natural world,” weight and size play a major role in determining the hierarchy within a species, as well as between different species. To oversimplify it: more weight is more power. But perhaps even more importantly: humans were hunters and gatherers until about 12,000 years ago (1). This meant that, especially in winter, when food was scarce, humans had to stock up. To avoid starvation, excess weight would have been protective and therefore desirable.

Modern humans still seem to experience the ripple effects of thousands of years of evolution, leading to our biological and behavioral changes during winter.
In this article, we will look at the behavioral patterns and biological makeup of people that cause weight gain, and offer 6 tips to keep it under control.

Behavior

Research suggests that our biological instincts prepare our bodies for winter, sort of like how bears prepare for hibernation. Once the days start getting shorter and shorter, we'll consume about 200 extra calories per day (2). This is backed up by MD Ann Kulze, author of Eat Right For Life, who says that "cold weather naturally incites an innate tendency to overindulge" (9).

Chances are you'll want to turn to your favorite sweets, or maybe you'll indulge your cravings with an equally delicious but much healthier alternative: Plenny Bar!

Of course, food abundance (in most of the world) is still a relatively new phenomenon, so it's not so strange that our physiology hasn't yet adapted to this new world order. Think about it: Homo sapiens has been around for about 200,000 years (3), but only 12,000 years ago did they start farming and developing agricultural skills. So, only about 6% of human existence has had the luxury of (relatively) abundant food.

Biology

Until more recently, before the invention of the electric light in 1802 (8), human activity was linked to day (active) and night (rest). As a result, evolution made sure that humans had a corresponding metabolism: a “stage” for day and a “stage” for night (4). During the day, a high metabolism would occur, burning more calories and providing more energy for activity, while at night a lower metabolism would occur, burning fewer calories and accessing mostly stored energy. Melatonin (a hormone produced by the body when it gets dark) is the chemical signal that lets your body know that the day is coming to an end and it is time to switch to “sleep mode.”

With the rise and worldwide use of electric light, this natural rhythm was disrupted. Even dim lighting will cause your body to produce considerably less melatonin than it would naturally (5), and researchers now believe that this disconnect plays a major role in our fight against weight gain (6).

It's not you, it's evolution!

Evolution has set us up to fail with a double whammy: increased appetite and desire for sweet/fatty foods during the winter, while the artificial light of our relatively new living conditions prevents melatonin from informing our body about the early morning, keeping our metabolism in the ‘on’ mode while in fact we’ve already been watching Netflix under a blanket for 6 hours. This daytime metabolism may seem rather convenient at first glance, but under natural circumstances your body would actually be shutting down once the sun starts to set. Instead, the body keeps thinking it’s still in ‘on’ mode, asking for more energy than it actually needs. And the energy it doesn’t burn, it stores!

Again, there is no shame in gaining weight during the coldest and darkest weeks of the year (or any other time of year, for that matter!), and hopefully this article will emphasize that it is even very normal. Still, we need to be mindful of our health, and since obesity worldwide has tripled in the past 45 years (7), we need to be wary of the potential risk of gaining weight.

6 tips for healthy eating during the winter months

At Esjoy we pride ourselves on being consistent throughout the year when it comes to helping people adopt healthy eating habits by creating delicious and “nutritionally complete” plant-based meals. Our products are ready-to-eat meals in shake or bar form, in various natural flavours. Each of our meals is made with the highest quality ingredients and consists of a carefully calculated ratio of optimal nutrition. So, to help you adopt or maintain healthy eating habits during the upcoming winter months, we have six useful tips for you.

1. Avoid your vices

A general tip to keep your weight under control during the winter is to limit your sugar intake. High glycemic index carbohydrates can cause your insulin to spike, increasing your appetite and promoting energy storage as fat. Instead, incorporate more protein into your diet. It will leave you feeling fuller for much longer, give you more control over your appetite, and help you maintain muscle. And guess what? Our products just happen to be low in sugar and high in protein!

2. Make healthy eating fun

We sometimes forget that eating healthy doesn't have to be a difficult and boring task. Healthy eating can be colorful, tasty and exciting.

Let's take fruits and vegetables. The amount of flavors and colors you can combine on your plate is endless. Have you ever tried mixing them up? Like, for example, putting dried cranberries or apple slices on a salad. We also love making colorful nutritious bowls . It's the best way to use up everything you have left in the fridge and mix different flavors. Tip: buy yourself a big, beautiful ceramic bowl to make your dishes look more "Instagrammable."

3. Set a cooking challenge

You can think of healthy eating as your own personal Master Chef competition. On those cooking shows, they often set a challenge where cooks need to use an ingredient and transform it into a creative, mind-blowing dish. So, every day you can pick an ingredient you want to use and think of different ways to turn it into something truly exceptional. One example is tofu – you can fry it, make a curry with it, put it in pad thai, use it to replace scrambled eggs, or even bake a cake with it. Check out our recipe page if you need some inspiration to get started!

4. No time? No worries!

“Well, I just don’t have time to eat healthy” – the number one excuse that we don’t believe in! Eating healthy is no longer more time-consuming than eating unhealthily. However, if you’re short on time, we recommend planning ahead and trying to prepare your meals a day or two in advance, or consider using a nutritionally complete meal provider that can pack all the essential vitamins and nutrients you need into one ready-to-consume-meal . Yes, we are that nutritionally complete meal provider. 

5. Set a personal goal

It's important to constantly remind yourself why you want to eat healthy. That can range from something very broad, like feeling more energetic, to a more narrow personal goal. Try to really think for yourself about what motivates you every day. Then, write it down on a piece of paper and stick it on your refrigerator door—that'll be your friendly little reminder that you're doing a great job!

6. Reward yourself

Two of our favorite words: cheat food. Yes, you can have that triple chocolate chip cookie dough ice cream! Pick a day of the week where calories don’t count and you can eat whatever you crave. Oddly enough, though, as soon as eating healthy becomes part of your daily routine, chances are that cookie dough ice cream won’t sound so good anymore. But still, always allow yourself to at least have the chance to indulge and cheat, you know, for old time’s sake.

 

Esjoy offers nutritionally complete, plant-based meals that are good for you and the planet.

SOURCES

1. National Geographic Society. 2020. Hunter-Gatherer Culture. [on-line]
2. Cronise, R., Sinclair, D. and Bremer, A. (2014) "The “Metabolic Winter” Hypothesis: A Cause of the Current Epidemics of Obesity and Cardiometabolic Disease", Metabolic Syndrome and Related Disorders, 12(7), pp . 355-361. doi: 10.1089/met.2014.0027.
3. Just How Old Is Homo sapiens? (2020). (Accessed: 15 December 2020).
4. Cronise, R., Sinclair, D. and Bremer, A. (2014) "The “Metabolic Winter” Hypothesis: A Cause of the Current Epidemics of Obesity and Cardiometabolic Disease", Metabolic Syndrome and Related Disorders, 12(7), pp . 355-361. doi: 10.1089/met.2014.0027.
5. Zeitzer, J. et al. (2000) "Sensitivity of the human circadian pacemaker to nocturnal light: melatonin phase resetting and suppression", The Journal of Physiology, 526(3), pp. 695-702. doi: 10.1111/j.1469-7793.2000.00695.x.
6. Cipolla-Neto, J. et al. (2014) "Melatonin, energy metabolism, and obesity: a review", Journal of Pineal Research, 56(4), pp. 371-381. doi: 10.1111/jpi.12137.
7. Obesity and overweight (2020). Available at: (Accessed: 15 December 2020).
8. The History of the Light Bulb (2013). (Accessed: 15 December 2020).
9. HuffPost (2016). (Accessed: 15 December 2020).