Winters are the best times to eat! The craving for delectable delicacies and lip-smacking treats is at its all-time high so is the risk of gaining weight. There are numerous studies that reveal that people tend to gain more weight during winter months due to their tendency to eat more during the season. According to Rallie Mc Allister, MD and author of Healthy Lunchbox: The Working mom’s guide to keeping you and your kids Trim, People on an average gain 1 to 2 pounds of weight in winters due to their eating habits in Winter months. And for people who are already overweight, the scale creeps up to even higher levels with greater speed.
Managing weight gain can be checked by following a few habits. By employing these tips you can curb your appetite and harmlessly get through the winter blues and maintain your wellness intact fitness and health:
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Combat Stress through exercising:
Exercising is the best thing that not only gets you back in shape but will also cut back your appetite. You may be wondering as to how exercising restrains your appetite. Exercising curbs stress. Out of numerous reasons of overeating in winters, stress is the chief reason that leads to mindless munching. According to Dr Armaris Noguera, Nutrition & Dietetics, replacing your unhealthy habits with healthier ones not only makes you fit physically but mentally as well. For example, taking a walk or practicing some meditational yoga postures relieves your stress and helps you control the habit of mindless eating. Exercising improves serotonin secretion in the body, which further acts as a stress reliever. Dr Mc Allister says the eat to exercise ratio in winters is disproportional, people tend to eat more and exercise less which is a disaster for any weight control plan. Exercising burns the extra calories and also controls your appetite which in the long run makes your body healthy and fit.
As per Dr Noguera, Holidays bring stress with them, and exercising emanates feel-good hormones which efficiently fight the stress hence curbing your tendency to gobble mindlessly. Just a 30-minute session of workouts will burn off your calories and unhealthy eating tendencies both!
Winters are cold and hence you comfort your self by eating foods that warm you up. The warm-up foods that we eat during winters are loaded with high-calorie food like Fat and cheese. According to Barrie Wolf Radbile, MS RD, Nutritionist with New York University Program for Surgical Weight Loss, With the dropping temperatures the tendency to eat calorie-laden edibles becomes high. You tend to revere eating dishes like stews, mac, mashed potatoes and cheese which are a rich source of carbohydrates and fats. These dishes make you cosy in winters certainly, but they are also going to increase your weight. So instead of gobbling over these culprits looking for healthier options not only keeps your weight checked but also keeps you unscathed from their ill-effects. Another Nutrition expert, Kristin Herlocker MS, RD of Diabetes Centers of American in Houston explains that on eating carbohydrate-rich food items our blood sugar level fluctuates which leads to food cravings at short intervals, this furthers your weight. These just satiate your appetite but never satisfy your cravings, rather after a very short span you end up gobbling again says, Mc Allister.
Winters are meant for eating healthy. Wise eating habits not only nutrition your body but also are good for keeping you fit and active. So these holidays don’t just gobble anything, but EAT SMART!
