Does Cold Weather Make You Store Body Fat?

Tom, it's almost as if you were reading my mind with this popped up in my news feed. I just sent my newsletter to my readers talking about how the arctic blast makes it hard to get motivated to get out of the house and no doubt, the question of Does Cold Weather Make You Store Bodyfat does come up.
Mind over matter.

Loved this article and it helps people like me stay motivated and brave the cold

Cheers,
Shari

i swim in 32 degree water for other health benefits and have not noticed that this activity increases appetite

Markku: Everyone is different, so I dont doubt that the degree to which you notice increased appetite may be less than others and also, some people may have more restraint to resist increased appetite even if they do notice it. Therefore, theres no reason swimming cant be a great a fat burner if energy intake stays the same

however, here is the study I referenced, in case youre curious
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/15902988

Also, inner circle members check out:
swimming and fat loss: a scientific analysis and research review:
http://www.burnthefatinnercircle.com/members/341.cfm

Very well balanced overview, Tom. Especially your note at the end about the slow creep of weight gain - one pound per year increase from age 25 and by 50, you are obese. I am 59 and weigh myself buck naked every morning, and plot results on a graph, so I know from day-to-day what the consequence of yesterday's big meal, lack of training etc has done. In an office-bound job, you need to remain alert and disciplined on a daily basis because it is not the binges that will get you, it's the regular, tiny gains which don't seem to matter at the time.
Keep up the good work - I enjoy the reads.

Regards, Simon.

simon said

"I am 59 and weigh myself buck naked every morning, and plot results on a graph, so I know from day-to-day what the consequence of yesterday's big meal, lack of training etc has done.

Great job simon - perfect example of accountabilty technique to keep your self in check. Incidentally, contrary to popular belief, weighing yourself daily has been proven in research to HELP you control your weight. lots of people saying to throw away your scales, dont weigh yourself, etc. Generally, bad advice. what gets measured gets managed -- if you dont measure it, you cant manage it. weighing in daily vs weekly vs not at all would make a good future blog post. thanks for the feedback and keep up the great work

Hello, This really helped me. I have been In the coldest place In Alaska for a little over a year now. Believe It or not, the Fairbanks area Is the coldest area In Alaska. I live 20 miles from Fairbanks, In a town called North Pole, and we are usually colder then Fairbanks. Anyway, enough of the geography lesson.

I couldn't figure out why 90% of the people are over weight, or why I gained 20 pounds In 2 months, after first arriving. When I got here, the temperature was 50 below 0 and the whole 3 hours of daylight was hard to adjust to, but I never put It all together.

I'm still stuck at 140 pounds, but having this Information gives me understanding and better equips me to get back Into shape. Sheesh! Apparently the weather turns people Into wind bags too. LOL.

Thank you for the Information. This truly will help me.

Tess

Guys,
Just a quick message, where i live in Paralowie, South Australia, Australia it is currently 43degrees celcius. So this is great for sweating it out. i have never lived in your cold climate so i am not sure what it is like to train in the real cold.

regards
noel

This is so true... it takes me much longer to "warm up" when jogging in the cold weather. Even in hot summers, jogging in 90F, sweating like crazy, I feel like I can go so much harder and further

Excellent piece!
Well done.

adam

I HAVE LOST TWO POUNDS OVER CHRISTMAS AND IM GOING TO A FITNESS CENTER AND WATCHING WHAT I EAT -- ONLY TWO COOKIES OVER THE HOLIDAYS! IM EATING MORE GREEN VEG AND A LOT OF V-8 PRODUCTS BUT THIS COLD WEATHER IS GETTING TO ME SINCE IM A SUN WORSHIPER, BUT I'VE GOT TO THINK POSITIVE; SPRING WILL BE HERE SOON. THANKS FOR THE NEWS LETTERS
GARDENER BILL

I think its important to look at winter as your preparation for the summer, so you can't let anything slip up.

I train in my garage here in Ireland and it's literally freezing recently, i hate being that cold so winter workouts are even more intense so i can stay warm!

barbell complexes and bodyweight exercises have been the focus recently and they are awesome for fat loss when structured into a workout properly.

Great post Tom :D

Thanks so much for sharing your thoughts about the cold weather and weight or fat loss over the holidays! I think all your comments are right on! It is the seasonal mindset at play that affect what we do and how we think. I am pleased to report that I lost a pound and it is just body fat in the six weeks since before Thanksgiving! I had been taking it easy after the marathon in October and then decided to whip myself back into shape for my next marathon in February. Not gaining weight over the holidays is definitely doable! You just have to be alert and vigilant during those weeks! Thanks again, Tom! Keep up the good work!

How do you explain certain global trends, such as less obesity in places like wintery Scandinavia and very high rates of obesity in hot Australia and the Middle East?

Cheers,
Shelley

"Treadmill across from the corn stove is my winter remedy. Also...I experimented with my sleep schedule this year when we set back the clocks. Went to bed an hour earlier and woke up earlier (by the clock) to work out. No sluggishness at all - 'cept for the darkness, I feel like I'm still in "summer" mode. My family thinks I'm completely nuts. Nuts are healthy, though, right?"

Shelley wrote:

How do you explain certain global trends, such as less obesity in places like wintery Scandinavia and very high rates of obesity in hot Australia and the Middle East?

You explain all obesity trends ONE WAY: if there is high obesity, there is a problem with energy imbalance: people are taking in more calories than they are burning.

So once you have this "first point in the chain of causation" then you can continue to track backwards in each case to find the causes of that energy imbalance

My article above gives many possible explanations based on temperature, which is influence by geography.

the explanation for obesity is energy imbalance/ calorie surplus, but the explanations for that energy imbalance are countless

It is also influenced by culture, independent of weather.

heres a great example, from a study in the Journal Medicine and Science in Sports and exercise: the old order amish have the lowest obesity rate in the world - about 4% or so. They have not adopted modern labor saving devices. they do NOT diet. However, in a pedometer study researchers found older order amish walked 18,000 and 14,000 steps per day respectively for men and women, compared to average american is 5,000 to 6,000.

see my previous blog post on goal setting for the new decade, where i discuss the impact of modern technology and labor saving devices on activity and obesity

I know I gain about 5 pounds every winter, due to the fact that winter (especially in Canada) is incredibly draining. It is cold and the days are so short. The last think you want to go on a cold day is go to the gym... instead you want a hot chocolate... mmmm

Very interesting post. I have not heard that swimming increases appetite over other activities and I guess have to wonder why exactly that is.

I would have to agree it is not the cold per se, but other reasons attributed to the cold such as the lack of activity and the comfort of knowing you can wear layers or sweaters to hide the holiday pounds. With shorter days, there is less time to fit everything in. And for those who workout in the morning, getting up in the cold can be a big dissuader which I can attest myself at times.

For some strange reason, I always lose weight in winter. I don't know why because I am more active during winter. I live in Finland and this winter is very cold.

This fall and winter I have exercised very little but for some reason I have lost weight. This also happened last winter.

Same thing was happening to me when I used to live in warmer climates.

I just wonder if you go for e.g. fast walking at very cold temperature (-20 C) you should be losing more weight than if you do the exercise at the same intensity but on higher temperature. I suppose you spend more energy as your body has to warm you up for the colder weather? For e.g. if I do exercise at the same intensity in cold weather (I check this by looking my avg heart rate during exercise) I don't sweat at all.

Tom, your blog was just shared with me on twitter today. I saw a friend comment that you have a new book out and I told her that reading one of your books changed my attitude about weight loss. I had briefly read some of "Burn the Fat, Feed the Muscle" at a friend's house. And wow. It was an eye-opener for me. It took me a long time to fully change my attitude, but now I speak about weight loss in the present, not the future. I am succeeding, not "I will do it". You have contributed to changing my life, and I just wanted to thank you.

Another interesting article I read a few weeks back made some interesting points. If I remember right it pointed to some research that indicated that the body actually metabolized certain types of foods more quickly during the winter, but these aren't the foods that many people reach for NOW that we have whatever we want readily available on the store shelf. It pointed out that the body more effectively burned the types of food that were traditionally available to a hunter/gatherer society during the cold months, such as meat.

If you look at a typical food year, for our ancestors, they had grains readily available in the fall and fattened up to survive the winter. The winter was traditionally the lean months, where food was often scarce and limited in selection. Things that stored well cold (potatoes, meat, etc.) were used for stews and soups along with rations of bread. Almost no fruits were available. So traditionally people leaned out during the winter months, but now that we have whatever we WANT to eat, we tend to get fat. The article I was reading suggested trying to eat more traditionally during the winter to prevent weight gain. I'm not saying it is a great idea, just interesting. We also know that our body reacts much better with a good balance. One other thought is that our ancestors didn't have any choice but to get outside and work in the cold, so maybe they were able to take advantage of the shivering thermogenisis to burn more fat...

My take is that we should be conscious of what we eat and how much activity we get. Extra focus is definitely required during the winter due to the Seasonal Challenges. I will say that I didn't have th problem of adding weight during the fall and winter when I was playing basketball 5 days a week during high school... I also haven't had the problem of adding weight this fall/winter when I have been focused on training and nutrition. I have increased my strength significantly since October and burned down almost 30 lbs net.

I find the cold makes me lazy!! which doesn't help me get to the gym at all. The weather is perfect for dvd's and popcorn!

I think it sounds strange that cold weather would make you store fat when the fat´s function was to be stored during summer to be burnt to cope with winter.

What do you think of an alternative theroy: During summer months the body store fat from eating relatively more carbs. During winter fat is stored when eating relatively more fat and protein. Fat storage is regulated by what you eat and by light and sleep. Today we manipulate our brains with high-intensity artificial light making it confused, thinking it is constant summer. We also dont sleep as much in winter (or in general) as we did before electricity. This makes the body crave carbs.

I suggest that if you sleep alot during winter your carb cravings will decrease. Lots of sleep, a low-carb diet and fasting will make you burn fat because these are the signals of winter when fat burning is supposed to keep you alive.

I have tried it this winter with very good results, both from fat loss and not feeling tired or winter depressed which I have before (I live in Sweden). I think this is a better explanation, especially when you think of that seasonal shifts in light has been a constant since life started on the planet until the minor shift in using firng and the huge change that came with electricity.

Would be interested to hear your thoughts on this. /D