Cold winter afternoons and hot chocolate with rich slices of cake seem to go hand-in-hand, as do rainy evenings with endless amounts of red wine, lamb stews and warm baked puddings topped with cream. Let’s face it, the winter weight battle is in full swing.

Winter is, for many, a time of indulging in comforting foods that normally would be forbidden. As a result, many runners struggle with weight-gain during winter. It may not seem to be a problem if you’re wearing big, baggy jerseys and hiding tighter jeans behind long jackets, but you may end up finding it harder each spring to shed those extra kilo’s.

Understanding the reasons for the increased urge to eat normally forbidden foods, or just to eat bigger portions of normally eaten foods, may help you to keep the weight down this winter. Winter depression, also known as Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD), is believed to develop from the lack of bright light during the winter months.

If you suffer from this disorder you are likely to feel depressed during winter. Apart from making you less eager to exercise, this depression can also make you eat more – especially carbohydrate-rich foods – as this will increase the serotonin (‘happy hormone’) levels in your brain.

Choose The Right Carbs

A moderate amount of unrefined carbohydrates eaten regularly through the day will make you feel good without increasing body mass, but too often we tend to choose high-fat, refined carbohydrates that will lead to weight-gain, such as chips, cake, sweets, chocolates and biscuits.

Do some planning before you go shopping and make sure to buy (and take to work) healthier options like wholegrain bread, wholegrain crackers, wholegrain rusks and wholegrain cereals, fruit, dried fruit and breakfast cereal bars.

Plan Ahead

If you take prepared food to work (e.g. a wholegrain sandwich and a cup of veggie soup), you are less likely to buy toasted sandwiches, hot chips and other fattening meals from a take-away shop.

Warming Up

Eating to warm up is another reason why we over-eat in winter. This seems to be particularly prevalent at the beginning of winter when our bodies are not used to the cold. Fresh fruit, salads and water just don’t go down as well as they do during the hot summer months.

To help you stay warm and full, include a lot of fibre-rich foods and liquid. Choose warm liquids like soup, tea and skinny milk drinks if you find drinking water difficult in winter. Instead of the salads we love to eat in summer, go for roast vegetables with a drizzle of olive oil or reduced-fat salad dressing. Fruit or herb-infused vinegars are also useful low-kilojoule dressings for roasting vegetables. Stirfries also add bulk to meals without adding too many kilojoules, as long as you use minimal oil for stir-frying.

Click here for some delicious recipes.

Keep Your Fruit Intake Up

If you tend to eat less fresh fruit during winter, try to include some dried fruit in your eating plan, but be careful of amounts if you’re trying to lose weight. Also have baked fruit (e.g. pears or apples) for dessert, or a snack instead of ice cream.

Exercise!

Make necessary changes to your exercise schedule so that you can still exercise despite shorter, colder days. For example, exercise at lunchtime if it is too dark or too cold in the mornings or evenings.

Winter need not be the months of over-eating or no exercising. It is possible to still enjoy this season and start the summer fitter, healthier and in better shape than ever before.

Just a few small changes is all it takes.

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