Do you find it harder to get up when it is cold, dark and possibly wet outside?
I know I do.
It's quite common for many people to let their exercise routine fall away during the winter months and for a few extra kilos to accumulate. Younger people in particular, don't notice the day-to-day difference, but they may be setting themselves up for problems later in life.
Research, and common sense, tells us it's better to maintain your activity and fitness if you want to avoid losing fitness and gaining fat over winter. Not only is it harder to regain your fitness, but over many years it can make a big difference to your health.
A recent study reported in the Journal of the American Medical Association showed that young adults, particularly women, who maintained high levels of moderate and vigorous activity over a period of 20 years experienced smaller gains in weight and waist circumference during the transition from young adulthood to middle age, compared to individuals with lower activity levels.
The researchers from Northwestern University in Chicago conducted a study to evaluate the relationship between maintaining higher activity levels and changes in body mass index (BMI) and waist circumference over 20 years in young adults.
The study is a prospective study that started in 1985-1986 and followed up participants until 2005-2006. The study included 3,554 men and women, ages 18 to 30 years at the beginning of the study.
Participants were categorised into three groups; maintaining high, moderate, and low activity levels based on sex-specific groupings (by thirds) of activity scores at the beginning of the study.
The results showed that over the study period, maintaining high levels of activity was associated with smaller gains in Body Mass Index (BMI) and waist circumference compared with low activity levels after adjusting for race, baseline BMI, age, education, cigarette smoking status, alcohol use and energy intake.
Over 20 years, men maintaining high activity gained 2.6 less kilograms and high activity women gained 6.1 fewer kilograms. High activity men gained 3.1 fewer centimeters in waist circumference and women maintaining higher activity gained 3.8 less centimetres.
The researchers noted that weight gains in participants with moderate or inconsistent activity levels generally were not different from the low-activity group.
Ladies take note, women seemed to benefit the most from maintaining higher activity. The magnitude of weight change was more than twice as large among women compared with men.
Similarly, participants who maintained the recommended 150 minutes of moderate activity per week gained significantly less weight compared with participants who did not.
So with cold and wet weather finally arriving (in Perth anyway), its time to put in place strategies to make sure you don't slip back on your activity and fitness over the winter months.
Here's three tips that might help.
1. Find friends who like to exercise in winter I have a cycling mate who loves riding in the rain, so I know regardless of the weather he will be there for our designated ride. Find someone with the same commitment and be there to exercise with them.
2. Have an alternative Sometimes it is just hard to get out the door when it is cold, wet and windy. It may even be dangerous to be out on the roads when visibility is poor and common sense tells you to stay home. Having an alternative, such as some weights or exercises to do at home means you can still do something. Even putting on your wet weather gear and going for a walk is better than doing nothing.
3. Change your mindset to wet weather I know it is hard to step out the front door when it is raining (see point 2) but not exercising because you might get wet is a slippery slope to a sedentary life. Just changing your mindset about exercising in winter might be all it takes to keep you active all year round. Focus on how good you'll feel when you have finished and how pleased you will be with yourself knowing many others stayed in bed or skipped their workout while you were doing your thing.
Don't let the thought of getting cold and wet deter you. You can only get wet once.
Article Author: David Beard, Calico Exercise Physiologist and Healthy Ageing expert
