New research from the University of Exeter explains why we enjoy eating so much over the winter holidays and our New Year's weight-loss resolution usually fails. Humans have evolved to subconsciously over-eat in the winter, when our bodies' desire to maintain fat is even greater when natural food sources are scarce. http://labroots.com/trending/id/2212/humans-evolved-to-over-eat-in-the-winter/health-and-medicine Paper: http://rspb.royalsocietypublishing.org/content/283/1822/20152443
Made sense in the past, so from an evolutionary point of view, overeating in winter is a logical conclusion. The time when natural food resources are scarcest is late winter. The reserves are used up, and new crops haven't started growing yet, and game has become fewer, due to the hunters and lack of food resources in winter. A second point is, that in winter, if you have no good home, you need more energy just to keep the body warm and with snow, most activities are harder than in summer. So our ancients needed more energy for their daily routine in winter than they needed in summer (except for the areas near the equator, without winter). "Weight loss resolution" is a catch in itself though. It's not that you can diet for a while, reach the weight and then start to eat like before. You must also maintain the new weight. So you must be prepared that achieving a target weight and keeping this target weight will be an ongoing process. Not a few weeks, not a few months, but as long as you want to keep the target weight. You'll have to be careful about food intake, about bodily activities, also about sleeping patterns and maybe more. I think this is the reason why the "weight loss resolutions" often fail - people are not prepared for an ongoing struggle to keep the target weight, but see it as a temporary thing. "I'll lose ten pounds" - yes, but it doesn't end there. You'll have to keep a regimen, to stabilize the new weight. It won't end.
Besides, we're bored! Often unable to get outside or do any of the activities we enjoy; we become more sedentary in winter: sit and watch movies or play computer games while chewing on something. It's no accident, btw, that the supermarket aisles dedicated to 'snack' food have gone from half of one side, plus candy by the cash when I first started shopping for a household, to two full aisles, plus six shelf-end displays. This is all airtight-packed stuff with a lot of preservatives and calories, sugar and salt, but little nutrient value. It can sit in a cupboard for weeks - unlike a banana or grapes - and this is what we tend to reach for when bored, frustrated, depressed or just not paying attention. Resolutions should never be made at New Year: they should be adjusted to the best chance of success - by season, opportunity, birthday or health scare.
