As a result, it can be hard to keep up with a strict diet routine that requires healthy meal prep when can influence eating patterns during seasonal changes. This could turn out to be a problem, especially after maintaining a strict diet all year long. In this article, we will be looking at 5 major factors that make dieting harder during seasonal changes.
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Temperature
During seasonal changes, we tend to experience a drastic change in temperature which affects the conditions of our body, thereby influencing what we eat and our dietary routines. For instance, researchers believe that cold weather tends to increase an inclination within us to fatten up in order to survive the cold winter.
Hormones
Seasonal changes can also affect the balance of some hormones in our body that are responsible for controlling hunger and appetite, thereby making dieting a bit harder. The hormones to look out for in this case are leptin, ghrelin and glucocorticoids. These hormones also tend to trigger some seasonal emotional feelings like winter depressions.
Seasonal Affective Disorder
This is a type of disorder that creates depression based on the change of seasons. As a result, Seasonal Affective Disorder usually occurs around the same time every year. If you are a victim of this disorder, during this time of the year, you are always moody to tap into your energy reserves and do anything. SAD disorder also affects your eating pattern, hence making it hard to keep up with your diet. This is usually the main cause of winter depression. Seasonal Affective Disorder can be treated through medications and therapies that include behavioural therapy, chronotherapy and light therapy.
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Daylight Hours
Daylight hours also affects our food cravings; researchers believe that sunlight has the ability to trigger a change in our diet. They further stated that in this case, people with Seasonal Affective Disorder tend to consume more carbohydrates in order to improve their mood. This is how your your mood can affect your weight.
Food Centric Occasions
Some seasons come with lots of fun activities, holidays and food-centric occasions, making it difficult to maintain a strict diet and accomplish fitness goals during these seasonal changes. In the summer, for instance, occasions like Barbecue parties are inevitable, thereby increasing our cravings for a certain kind of food.
On the other hand, during the winter, we have food-centric occasions like Christmas, New Year and more. To contend with that, it becomes difficult to manage our diets. This period is very delicate to both our physical and mental health as it becomes easy to fall into what is known as “winter blues” or winter depression.
