Strategies For The Winter 15

Winter is coming, bringing with it those 15 lbs that magically appear on your body. What are your strategies to keep dark days weight gains at a minimum? Apart from the obvious: eating and drinking less.

Or do you just accept this as a normal biological fluctuation and deal with it in the Spring?

At 6' 2", I've worked hard to be at 177, but typically balloon to 190+ by January.

I'd be curious to hear other's winter time regimes.

I've always been a morning person, so working out in the morning is routine for me. I find it easier to just wake up, go to the gym, put in my time, then get to work. If you can make exercise a regular part of your day/schedule, I think you can avoid the weight gain. Eating healthy is a part of it as well.

During the summer months, I prefer to trail run and get in my exercise outside...but during the winter, I'm fine with going to the gym. The treadmill is a time to catch up on good music that I don't listen to when running outside. I also mix it up...running (intervals), crossfit-like workouts, TRX, free weights.

My gym is less busy in the morning then after work....and the people I see there are all "regulars"....we are all there with a purpose and do our things and get out of there. After work is hard as the high school kids overrun the gym (I'm sounding old with that statement).

Then on the weekends...get outside whenever you can...be it climbing, snowshoeing, hiking, running, etc.

I'm also pretty consistent about my weekly food prep. I try to make a lot of my meals for the week in advance so I have relatively healthy food options available to me at work or at home.

15 pounds on that size frame isn't too serious, if it all goes away. But, if a few pounds sneak in and stay each year, that sneaks up on you.

I have a bracket, 5 pounds to stay in, at 5 feet tall. Approach the top, cut back. I just weigh once a week, same day, same time, and have actually, very slowly, lost weight this way without dieting.

I think "dark" is a big part of the battle in the winter, and boredom. Find a way to get out and do something, especially with other people, outdoors if possible, but just something more fun than pizza and beer and tv. Not that high a bar, really.

The other problem is the ever present stuff at many work places, all that food it is so easy to just grab a "bit" of every time you walk by the table. Hard not to do that, so you have to plan on less dinner, or something.

Winter could be a great time for a class, cross fit, boot camp, adult swim classes, heck, ballroom dancing or a cooking class. Something fun, that challenges you, and where you can show off a bit, or at least try to!

Best, H.

Go snowboarding 70 or 80 times.

Strategy: drink spiked hot cocoa, enjoy the warmth. Gain a few extra pounds, enjoy the warmth.

You're right next to some epic backcountry skiing terrain. A couple 3k foot days a week with some gym climbing in between will keep you at fighting weight.

Tapawingo wrote:You're right next to some epic backcountry skiing terrain. A couple 3k foot days a week with some gym climbing in between will keep you at fighting weight.

To many variables. Get a season pass and go up every week day and then on weekends or when you get bored go into the back country to avoid the crowds. Work in the afternoon from 4-10 and climb for an hour every second day after work. You can do this by working as a ski tec and the advantage of that is that ski shops tend to always be close to pizza shops.

Stormannorman wrote: To many variables. Get a season pass and go up every week day and then on weekends or when you get bored go into the back country to avoid the crowds. Work in the afternoon from 4-10 and climb for an hour every second day after work. You can do this by working as a ski tec and the advantage of that is that ski shops tend to always be close to pizza shops.

Low angle, in the trees, no crowds, actually very feasible...I'm glad my mind doesn't work like yours Norman, let's just put it that way.

There are no rails or jumps in the back country. Seriously though, I go into the back country 2 or 3 times a week in winter, but you just don't get the vert. Yea you get fit at going up hill but you don't get fit at going down hill and that is where it counts. Get into some steep gnarly shoots with drops in them and you want to be feeling pretty good at your down hill.

Climbing at J Tree or Red Rocks seems to work well, as you know.

Perhaps just as worth considering, how do you maintain spryness as you age?

Dunno, ask Glen Plake.

For me the bummer is going from climbing 5 to 6 days a week to one to two. However, at long last the Wenatchee area is getting a climbing gym, which should help matters.

riverfrontrockgym.com

Ski touring is fine, but all the good peaks are too far of an approach without snowmobile assist. I've paid my dues on 10 mile approaches.

Blah blah blah. Maybe we'll have a climbing winter like a couple years ago....

Stormannorman wrote: Seriously though, I go into the back country 2 or 3 times a week in winter, but you just don't get the vert. Yea you get fit at going up hill but you don't get fit at going down hill and that is where it counts.

I think this is a myth (that you don't get "downhill-fitness" from backcountry skiing) that lots of people believe. But I think it's just an excuse to go to a resort.

Stormannorman wrote:There are no rails or jumps in the back country. Seriously though, I go into the back country 2 or 3 times a week in winter, but you just don't get the vert. Yea you get fit at going up hill but you don't get fit at going down hill and that is where it counts. Get into some steep gnarly shoots with drops in them and you want to be feeling pretty good at your down hill.

The guy asked for ways to keep off winter weight, skinning uphill most definitely accomplishes this task. BTW there are plenty of steep gnarly chutes in the BC, so I'm not sure what you're getting at.

Tapawingo wrote: The guy asked for ways to keep off winter weight, skinning uphill most definitely accomplishes this task. BTW there are plenty of steep gnarly chutes in the BC, so I'm not sure what you're getting at.

So you are saying that you don't loose weight skiing down hill?

John Byrnes wrote: I think this is a myth (that you don't get "downhill-fitness" from backcountry skiing) that lots of people believe. But I think it's just an excuse to go to a resort.

So you go Back country skiing right, say you might do five runs on a big day. Then with it being winter and all the weather packs out and you might only average going once a week. That means weight gain.

So you go to a ski field and they are open every day and you might do say 20 runs a day and just ski miles and miles of untracked pow on a white out days, clear days and any time it snows. Then even when the snow is bullet proof you can still go up and get a work out by laying down some mean carves. Also by doing this you end up averaging just as much if not more up hill touring time as the avid ski tourer because everybody knows all the best snow is over the back of the ski field so you might go over for a couple of runs in the afternoon after a morning on the slopes or vice versa.

Much more fun in my opinion than going craging or climbing at an indoor gym to try and loose weight. It has got me stumped how you can loose weight by going craging or gym climbing.

Stormannorman wrote: So you go Back country skiing right, say you might do five runs on a big day. Then with it being winter and all the weather packs out and you might only average going once a week. That means weight gain. So you go to a ski field and they are open every day and you might do say 20 runs a day and just ski miles and miles of untracked pow on a white out days, clear days and any time it snows. Then even when the snow is bullet proof you can still go up and get a work out by laying down some mean carves. Also by doing this you end up averaging just as much if not more up hill touring time as the avid ski tourer because everybody knows all the best snow is over the back of the ski field so you might go over for a couple of runs in the afternoon after a morning on the slopes or vice versa. Much more fun in my opinion than going craging or climbing at an indoor gym to try and loose weight. It has got me stumped how you can loose weight by going craging or gym climbing.

Your meandering response has nothing to do with what I wrote. So why did you quote me?

Says you lead WI5 in your profile.. so I assume you get after it in the winter?

Not sure what the ice scene is like in WA, but plenty of stuff here in CO requires pretty long approaches (a couple of miles) especially in RMNP. As a result I tend to stay the same weight throughout the winter when combined with my regular exercise regimen (running, lifting, gym laps), and I tend to eat a ton more than I do in the warmer months.

What is your eating discipline like? Are you weighing you food on a scale / tracking calories with an app etc? I know most don't want to take it to that level, but it's effective. I've shed almost 60 lbs mostly just calorie and macro nutrient counting in the last two years.

Funny, winter is when I take off the weight I put on waiting out the rain in the fall. Ski touring, ice climbing, x-country skiing, etc. Gotta get ready for ski mountaineering in the spring!

Shepido wrote:Says you lead WI5 in your profile.. so I assume you get after it in the winter? Not sure what the ice scene is like in WA, but plenty of stuff here in CO requires pretty long approaches (a couple of miles) especially in RMNP. As a result I tend to stay the same weight throughout the winter when combined with my regular exercise regimen (running, lifting, gym laps), and I tend to eat a ton more than I do in the warmer months. What is your eating discipline like? Are you weighing you food on a scale / tracking calories with an app etc? I know most don't want to take it to that level, but it's effective. I've shed almost 60 lbs mostly just calorie and macro nutrient counting in the last two years.

The ice scene in WA is fleeting and terrifying. I log long b/c ski tours as much as my aching feet will allow. Thats odd you gain more weight in summer. The weight gain just seems to happen to me on its own in the winter. Not sure why. I don't eat any more or any worse. But like I pointed out, I climb (outside) 5 to 6 times a week in spring-summer-fall. Then winter maybe a long ski tour per week.

But usually by late winter early spring I'm shocked at the 15 lb swing that happens. So I'm left with playing catch-up until about mid summer, then peak by September through November, in terms of weight loss and climbing ability.