Ilene Anders
Reporter
For students, winter usually isn’t a friend. Biting cold air and dropping temperatures force teens indoors, where heaping plates of holiday cooking are thrust in front of them. Whether someone is a year-round athlete, on their off-season, or doesn’t exercise at all, winter tends to bring a few presents and a few pounds.
If winter had a middle name, it might be temptations. Holidays like Thanksgiving, Christmas and Hanukah not only bring gifts, but also delicious foods and sometimes unavoidable second helpings. “My worst temptation is probably hot chocolate and cookies,” junior Alex Bordelon said. “My friends and I always bake for Christmas.”
People also don’t seem to work out as much in winter. “I think people gain weight during the winter because during the summer it’s easier to get out and do things,” senior track captain Melanie Escalante said. “During the winter, you’re stuck indoors all the time and you can’t go walking outside. People are less inclined to go out in the cold.”
Not only do people feel less motivated to exercise, but your body may also be contributing to weight gain in winter. “Your body may be working against you to hang on to [weight]so you stay warm,” Lawrence Cheskin, founder of the Johns Hopkins Weight Management Center in Baltimore, said in an interview with Prevention magazine.
Junior Katie Krueger thinks that people pig out in winter because of boredom. “When you don’t go anywhere for vacation and friends are away, you get bored and just eat,” she said. Many other students agree that when there’s nothing to do but watch TV over vacation they can’t help but whip out snack foods and satisfy cravings.
Even the lack of sunlight during the winter may affect weight gain. “When there’s less daylight winter can also bring on Seasonal Affective Disorder, or [winter]depression,” Nurse Josie Davies said. “One way of combating this is to eat. Kids might consume things high in carbs like cookies or candy to get a satisfied feeling.”
“Any type of dessert is tempting,” sophomore Ashley Kong said. “I really love chocolate, but I eat it as a stress-reliever.” Ashley uses holiday food as an outlet for low moods, making it even harder to resist.
Another reason cited by students for over-eating is midterms. “A lot of teenagers don’t think about what they’re eating when they’re studying because they just need snack foods to keep them going,” Alex said.
While outside factors may contribute to gaining weight during winter, sophomore Jessica Wombles thinks we only have ourselves to blame. “People use winter as an excuse to slack off, pig-out and let themselves go, when people should be concerned with their weight and physical activity all year round,” she said.
However, other students believe that vacation is a time for relaxation, and the food consumed during break doesn’t matter. “I think splurging over vacation is fine, but if you understand that you’re already overweight then you should be more conscious [of what you eat]than you otherwise would be,” sophomore Tucker Radecki said.
Not all students are affected by winter temptations. Some make it through the season without gaining a pound by being careful about what they eat, working out, or just having a fast metabolism. Sophomore Rebecca Trinklein says she’s actually in better shape during the winter due to the intensity of her sport. “I do synchronized swimming and it’s really hard. It has a lot of long practices,” she said.
Girls cross-country coach Art Brown doesn’t believe weight gain in the winter is a problem for his girls because of the indoor weight room here. However, for the un-athletic teenager, he said, “They should join a local YMCA or fitness club. Teens should try to get in a half hour of exercise a day.”
Inspiration is key to keeping off unwanted pounds. “Motivation to keep off holiday weight is knowing that the year is almost over and you don’t want to enter the [new]year with bad eating habits,” sophomore Kaylee Brea said.
