Most people tend to gain weight during winter time, simply because they stop their fitness routines and start to eat more sweets and high caloric food. The main explanation for quitting sports during winter time are, of course, the cold weather. The holiday season, Christmas and the New Year parties are good excuses for large meals, alcohol and sweets abuse.

The winter weight loss and fitness tips provided below are very handy for controlling your body weight, keeping your body fit and why not, for losing weight. You will be surprised how helpful most winter sports are for burning calories. Perform as many such sports, as often as possible and you will overcome the winter season with ease.

Top 10 winter weight loss tips

10. Wear Red
Many claim that wearing red aids in weight loss. The winter months are the best time for wearing this color, so, you can easily try this magical theory out. You can dress yourself as Santa Claus, wear red underwear, try a red scarf or anything similar.
Red pajamas should not miss from your wardrobe.

Followers claim that the red color provides pure energy and will melt your fat away. You can even lose weight during your sleep using the above mentioned red pajamas. More, for getting rid of belly or but fat, you should wear a red bicycle short, during the night.

9. Away Parking
Parking your car further away is another great solution of burning extra calories. You can apply this tip very easy. Just find a place for parking your car so that you allow yourself some walking distance until you reach your destination. Allow yourself a 5 minute walk every time you drive.

This is a great tip for all seasons. However nothing is more refreshing like a 5 minutes winter walk. This way you will refresh yourself and burn calories in the same time.

Of course, the ideal solution would be to replace driving with walking as often as possible.

8. Shopping
You might be surprised, but yes shopping can aid in weight loss. Christmas and the winter season are important reasons for shopping. We can all agree about the fact that everyone needs to shop for Christmas gifts during this time of the year.

Shopping implies a lot of walking, standing and even carrying especially for those who want to take on every store and every mall.

A decent shopping session can burn around 165 calories per hour for the average individual. Take care because it can burn a lot more cash though.

7. Snow cleaning
This is another great winter workout. Cleaning the snow from your car, sidewalk or porch can be a very fun and requesting activity.

You only need the proper clothing, a shovel and a snow brush. One hour of snow shoveling burns up to an impressive amount of 550 calories. A simple morning car snow cleaning will easily burn 100 calories within 10 minutes.

So, pray for snow, because it’s worth it!

6. Dancing
The winter holidays and the New Year are some great occasions for hosting or attending to parties. I advise you to use every opportunity for maximizing the weight loss process and dancing is one of them.

Dancing can burn up to 400 calories per hour. This is probably the nicest way of burning the extra fight. Dancing is both fun, relaxing and interactive.

I strongly advise you not to miss a party this winter!

5. Ice Skating
Nothing is more pleasant like an evening skating session at the local skating ring. Many people, nice music and mulled wine are a guarantee for a nice evening together with your friends.

You don’t even need your own skates. All skating rings offer various skating boots for rent. Half an hour of moderate skating burns around 200 calories. Considering that an average skating session last 90 minutes, you can burn easily 500 calories and have lots of fun.
Skate carefully!

4. Cross Country Skiing

Cross country skiing is a pleasant winter sport practiced usually by middle aged people. It’s a great cardiovascular fitness workout. It’s a sport with low injury risks.

However you need special cross country tracks do practice it. The equipment consists in cross country boots and skies. Special cross country suit is also needed.

Half an hour of cross country skiing can waste an impressive number of 375 calories.

3. Downhill Skiing
Downhill skiing couldn’t miss the top 3 entrance. The most popular winter sport is of course a great calorie burner. It’s a mind and body refreshing activity which can easily rise your adrenaline level with every skied slope.

However please rate your skiing level accordingly and chose the appropriate slope difficulty. Leg and especially knee injuries are common for beginner and advanced skiers.

30 minutes of skiing burn an average of 325 calories!

2. Snowboarding
Surprisingly or not snowboarding burns fat faster than skiing. Half an hour of snowboarding burns on average 350 calories. However because of injury risks and difficulty snowboarding is usually performed by young and middle aged people.

In order to snowboard you need a complete equipment starting with snowboard suit. The snowboard goggles and gloves are a must. The boots and the actual snowboard should be selected after consulting a snowboard instructor.

Are you ready for the number 1 winter weight loss activity?

1. Snowshoe walking
Snowshoeing or snow shoe walking is perhaps one of the most efficient safe and easy to perform winter activity. You only need a pair of snowshoes, two poles and some friends to walk with. Practically everyone who can walk can enjoy snowshoeing.

Snowshoe walking targets a large social and age range. It is a fun, inexpensive and healthy activity. It allows you to spend a fun and interactive day together with friends or family.

Referring to the health benefits, snowshoeing is a great cardiovascular exercise. More, it is considered one of the most efficient calorie burning exercise. 30 minutes of vigorous deep snow walking on varied terrain can burn up to 400 calories.

Snowshoe walking video

The kangoo jumps have been invented in Australia, of course. Nowadays this fitness workout is available in many gyms around the world. To perform kangoo jumps, one only needs a pair of kangoo jumps boots. These can be purchased in online/offline stores or rented from your local gym. For beginners, a kangoo jumps trainer should be also very handy.

Kangoo jumps allows you to tone your muscles and burn a lot of calories by performing interesting and intriguing fitness workouts. Your body will stay slim and healthy. Jump, dance and lose weight, kangoo jumps!

The kangoo jumps boots allow you to perform safe jumps. Your joints are protected and you will feel a pleasant sensation of weightlessness, which could be compared with walking on air. More information about this special boots will be provided in another article.

Kangoo Jumps – Health and Fitness Benefits
As mentioned above besides having fun, the kangoo jumps workout provides numerous health benefits for your body.
- Boosts the fat burning process. 20 minutes of kangoo jumps burn around 200 calories.
- Reinforces the cardiovascular system.
- Strengthens the spine and the intervertebral discs.
- Improves the general posture.
- Improves your balance and coordination skills.
- Maximizes the body’s muscle contractions with the help of the positive and negative gravitational force.

An example to prove how fun, interactive and engaging a kangoo jumps workout can become, is available in the Youtube video presented below:

Note: A kangoo jumps workout can be performed by anyone between 6 and 90 years of age. No matter if you are male or female, over or underweight, fir or unfit. Don’t hesitate, try it out!

This general perception and the daily concessions regarding to the unhealthy eating habits are dangerous and result often in steady weight gains. People which can’t mobilize their will to follow a weight loss diet end up placing the blame on a series of outside factors as entourage, family or even on their appropriation to be gourmets.

Unhealthy eating habits are the main reason of overweight. Everyone can agree on how popular junk food nowadays is, however studies proved that eating junk food is rarely a biological need. The desire to eat junk food is related to psychological and behavioral implications .

Junk food and nourishment with high caloric value are usually very delicious. Have you ever asked yourself why almost all diets prohibit the consumption of sweets? Sweets and all other sweet and high caloric nourishment are known that they open appetite and you will end up eating more and more.

A slower synchronization between our brain and our stomach occurs, most of the time, when we have appetite for a certain food type. Normally the feeling of fullness appears when out stomach is filled up, but the feeling of “I had enough to eat!” comes from the brain. The human psyche works using the principle of pleasure. When we eat one of our favorite foods the pleasure principle will control our psyche and the feeling of fullness will appear to late.

The statement “we are what we eat” is perfectly true. This is why we need to learn to eat the suitable food in the most suitable moment. This way everyone is able to avoid becoming overweight and can easily control their body weight. I have to agree that this approach is obviously different and less convenient if you compare it with the one allowing junk food, but this is a sacrifice which has to be made if you chose a healthy and balanced life.

How to deal with all the culinary attractions
1. Eat often
Try to eat often and light. Our body needs constant energy to accomplish its functions. This energy comes from food. If you eat rarely and a lot, the extra energy will be deposited under the form of fat. It is very useful to eat often and light. Our body will have constant energy and the sensation of fullness will persist, keeping us away from temptations.

2. Don’t leap meals
The more time passes after your last meal, the higher the appetite will be. As a result the next meal will be larger in order to compensate the big appetite.

3. Eat slowly
It has been proved that the delay between physic reactions of fullness and the physiological reaction can be solved by slow eating. This way the appetite will decrease steadily and we will be able to be more accurate in determining when our stomach is full or not.

However, recent studies have proved that adults and elderly individuals have also an important need of Vitamin D. German studies state that Vitamin D and Vitamin D supplements are helpful for overweight individuals. Vitamin D aids in weight loss. More, this vitamin lowers the triglycerides level and the serum markers of inflammation level. This means that the cardiovascular disease risk is also lowered.

Vitamin D sources
1. The Sun
The main source of Vitamin D is the sun. Our body produces Vitamin D if it’s exposed to sun. However multiple factors as time of day, season of the year, geographic location or sunscreen directly affect vitamin D synthesis. Usually 10-15 minutes of sun exposure, several times a week, can make a huge difference and increase the vitamin D production.

2. Foods
Vitamin D is not often found in food. However the flesh of fish like tuna and salmon as well as fish liver oils are good and rare sources. Vitamin D is also found in fortified foods.

3. Nutritional Supplements
Supplements are a sure source of vitamin D. They are usually a must for people living in areas with low sunlight or areas which are highly polluted.

Vitamin D and weight loss
A daily supplement of 83 mcg of vitamin D keeps the heart and the blood vessels healthy during a weight loss process. Benefits are registered for both males and females, no matter how many kilograms one loses or how much fat tissue the individual burns. As a conclusion vitamin D boosts weight loss and, in the same time, keeps the cardiovascular system healthy.

US researches have recently proved that adding vitamin D to a low calorie diet results in an obvious weight loss boost. Every 1 ng/mL plasma level increase of 25-hydroxycholecalciferol (a measure for vitamin D level in the human body) resulted in an 0.2 kg (0.44 lb) weight loss boost in all individuals which took part at the research. This means that all individuals which followed the low calorie diet imposed by the research and also added vitamin D supplements to it lost 0.2 kg or 0.44lb more as the ones that did not took the vitamin.

Vitamin D deficiency
Vitamin D deficiency can lead rickets if we refer to children. For adults and insufficient amount of vitamin D can lead to osteopenia (general bone mass deficiency), osteoporosis, muscle strength loss, bone fracture risk increase. It also increases the risk of cardiovascular, infectious and autoimmune diseases.

Note: Vitamin D brings a lot of benefits. However this vitamin is soluble, can be accumulated in the human body which can lead to hypervitaminosis. Please consult your doctor for an optimal planing before taking vitamin D supplements.

Here is a simple example about energy balance. Just compare your body with a car that’s running 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. A car needs fuel in order to be able to run from point A to point B. You need to constantly refuel, to keep it running, knowing that you can’t pour more fuel in, as the tank allows it.

Sadly, many of us don’t know that our body works in a similar way. We often try to push our body to work at its optimal parameters although we know that our “tank” is “empty”. This happens sometimes for hours. The second big mistake is that after such a stress we “refuel” with a huge amount of energy, which is equivalent to more than our “tank” can store.

Researches completed by various nutrition experts show how counterproductive the above presented strategy is. Lets assume that you have decided to lose weight and are planning to run, every morning, on an empty stomach, in order to accomplish your goal. You should know that, in this case, the easiest energy source for our body is the muscle tissue. The human body can convert amino acids (the “bricks” of every muscle tissue) in glucose. Glucose is the sugar which fuels our day by day activities. This way, everyone running on an empty stomach, ends up burning muscle tissue and this really shouldn’t be anyone’s goal.

Body weight control tips
1. Avoid starvation
One of the most important tips for controlling your energy balance is avoiding starvation. Many people which try to lose weight or aim on maintaining their body weight try to starve themselves. This leads to a big gap between meals. Eventually when they decide to eat, they end up devouring large quantities of food. After a large meal insulin levels raise more than normal and the body deposits more fat than needed.

2. Maintain your balance
The energy balance is the key to success if we want to control our body weight. Researches have shown that the best results are obtained when the energy intake-consumption ratio is balanced between the levels of 300-500 kcal (Kilocalories), equivalent to 1256-2093 kJ (Kilojoules).

Energy balance control tips
- Eat every morning, right after waking up.
- Eat something before you workout, no matter what time of the day you plan to do some sports.
- Eat something immediatley after your physical exercises, when your body’s energy levels are dried out.
- Schedule yourself a diet with 5 to 6 light meals per day.

Note: If you jog 10 km (6 miles) on an empty stomach you will end up eating as much as you would need for a 15 km (9miles) run. More, you will “manage” to lose muscle tissue during the run and deposit fat from the rich meal taken after the jog!

The ideal body weight formula is used for obtaining the ideal body weigh using simple arithmetic. In fact, there are a series of formulas available, but most of them provide a similar result. They are obviously different for male and females. This arithmetic formulas take in consideration factors as height, age and gender.

You need to compare your actual weight with the ideal one before starting any weight loss diet. This way you will exactly know how much weight you need to lose to accomplish your target. Knowing how many pounds (kilograms) you need to lose will help you to carefully plan your weight loss venture.

One more very important overweight indicator is the body mass index (BMI), but I will handle this subject in one of my next articles. Further on I am presenting you some of the most popular formulas for calculating your ideal body weight.

Ideal body weight formula
As mentioned before, the ideal body weight can be estimated using various formulas. Some of the most interesting results are provided by the Lorenz equation and the New York metropolitan insurance company formula.

1. Lorenz Formula
The Lorenz formula was launched in 1929 and has two versions. One fore males and the other for females. You need to know your height and weight before you apply it. Here is the equation:
Female: W(kg)= H(cm) – 100 -[H(cm) - 150]/2
Male: W(kg)= H(cm) – 100 -[H(cm) - 150]/4

2. New York metropolitan insurance company formula
This ideal body weight formula resulted from the ideal weight tables and charts dating from 1943-1983.
Female: W(kg)= 50 + 0.75 * [H(cm) - 150] + (A – 20) /4
Male: W(kg)= 50 + 0.75 * [H(cm) - 150] + (A – 20) /4

Note
The formula is presented in the metric version. You can convert standard intro metric using our own unit converter.
Legend
W(kg) – Your ideal body weight calculated in kilograms.
H(cm) – Your height measured in centimeters.
A – Your actual age.

This extension bench is very good in training the lower back and the abs and especially the obliques. Using it gradually and constantly will help you to lose the unwanted belly fat. The results are great although some hard work is demanded.

I always plan the ab-workout towards the end of my training session. For me, it’s the part which drains most of my energy and demands the most effort to accomplish. But if you consider that it helps in toning the waist region and helps at losing belly fight, you might agree that it’s a fair price to pay.

What I want to underline is that training your abdominal muscles, the lower back and in general the muscles from your waist zone, will help you to maintain and improve your silhouette. We all agree that the waist area is very important, especially for women.

45-degree extension bench – Workout Types
I recommend using this bench by performing two simple exercises:
1. The 45 degree hyper extensions for lower back.
These extensions are the classic workout done at the 45 degree extension bench. They build a strong lower back, develop the abs and isolate the glutes and hamstring muscles. I would also add that they provide a great definition to the above mentioned muscle groups.

2. The sideway 45 degree hyper extension for the oblique muscles.
This second exercise is a little bit more difficult. However it is a very good workout for your obliques, which are actually the diagonally arranged abdominal muscles, placed on either side of your torso. Training and strengthening this muscles will effectively make you look slimmer in the torso region.

45-degree extension bench – Explained Workouts

1. The 45 degree hyper extensions.

2. The sideway 45 degree hyper extension.

Note: In order to efficiently lose belly fat using the 45-degree extension bench you need to perform the above presented exercises in heats. Use as many repetitions as possible per each heat. Start with 10 repetitions, and gradually increase to 15, 20, 25 as you gain more experience and strength. Train at least 2 times per week on this bench and try to increase your effort week after week.

All those which don’t know to swim I recommend them to learn it first under the guidance of an experienced swimmer, or better a swimming teacher. Swimming is very easy once you learn how to go past your fears of water.

In this article I consider that you are already a basic swimmer and I will teach everyone how to use this sport for body strengthening and weight loss.

Swimming Weight Loss – Pros and Cons
First of all let me underline that there are a lot of opinions about swimming and weight loss.
Cons
Many consider that swimming isn’t actually really helping with losing weight. They claim that swimming burns fat, but in the same time,they consider it a great appetite enhancer. Resulting that one will eat back all the burned calories during the first meal after working out.
The explanation is that swimming tires the body. This, mixed with the relative cold water found in the swimming pool results in an obvious appetite increase.
Others claim that the same tiredness which installs after a swimming session makes one inactive for the rest of the day and that most people just lay around or sleep after a vigorous swimming workout.

Pros
A big plus for swimming is that it tones your body starting with the very first session. During swimming we use almost all major muscle groups of the body. This means that swimming not only burns fat but it also strengthens the muscles and brings your body to look and to act fit.
It is true that swimming increases appetite and it is also true that most people are tired after a vigorous swimming session. But what if you can do something about it? No one forces you to stop at the first fast-food after you leave the swimming pool. You can easily arrive home and eat a balanced meal including some energy foods which will help still your hunger and regain your energy levels.
Another advantage of swimming is that it provides a very good alternative to running, cycling and other similar activities. It is a very good replacement, in case you get bored of your every day jog.

Swimming and Weight Loss – Conclusion
To sum it all up here is my recommendation. Please note that I used swimming in the past as a weight loss workout and it worked for me. I recommend you do to the same. The idea is to avoid having swimming as your only workout exercise.
When you start your weight loss diet, try to build yourself a schedule. It’s best to write everything down on a sheet of paper. Try to plan everything at least a week in advance. You should include a balanced diet, a daily workout session and proper sleeping hours.
Swimming enters the plan in your daily workout session. It’s always best to have 3 types of physical workouts during the week. You can repeat each workout twice and have the Sunday off. You can include running, cycling and swimming for example and mix them out during the days of the week. Don’t schedule two swimming sessions in back-to-back days, just mix them as balanced as possible.
This way you will lose weight and maintain or even define the nice shapes of your body.
Don’t forget, swimming is an excellent exercise for toning up your body!

Swimming and Weight Loss – Maximize your results
Here are some tips for maximizing your weight loss results during swimming.
1. Always warm-up properly before entering the swimming pool.

2. Warm-up also after you enter the pool by swimming different styles and low pace for 5 minutes. Include breaststroke, backstroke and front crawl.

3. Never swim at your highest pace, because you will get tired very fast and waste precious energy.

4. Perform your training by swimming in heats of 15-30 minutes.

5. Don’t swim to slow, chose a moderate pace which you can keep up with during your entire heat. You can increase the pace in the last 2,3 minutes of the heat.

6. Take at least a 5 minute break between heats. You can drink some water if needed.

An extra intake of energy foods is needed if we plan do include physical workouts in our daily routine. To get right to the point, of course, we need energy for weight loss. I underlined this many times on this blog. I am militating for active weight loss. This means losing weight trough exercise and an overall active lifestyle and not trough pills or starving. An optimal diet in this case is to obtain the following great proportion. We need to maximize the intake of energy foods, keeping the fat intake at the lowest level possible.

Another proverb says, ‘A rich meal, shows a rich soul!’, and I would add a healthy body. We all agree that a healthy diet and physical workouts do wonders. I just read an article stating that this year’s highest male death rate was caused by lung cancer. With some countries reaching an incredible percentage of 70%. This is why I included some energy foods which prevent cancer in this top 10.

One more, thing until I present you the list. It is highly recommended to perform some sports outdoors, in nature. This way lungs are ventilated with fresh air. You can refresh your whole body with a simple 30 minutes evening jog in the park. By the way this will also help you improve your sleep.

OK, time to share the top 10 energy foods. Below are listed aliments which prevent cancer, offering in the same time energy for and active lifestyle.

Top 10 Healthy Energy Foods
1. Apple
You know the proverb: ‘An apple a day keeps the doctor away!’. This one seems really true. The apple provides the necessary fibers to maintain a healthy bowel, while the apple pectin retrieved from the apple’s peal, prevents cancer. Moreover, apples are an oasis of healthy energy. They also activate the blood flow.

2. Eggplant
Eggplants are the perfect sedative. Including them regularly in your diet helps you to escape from stress. They are ideal to eat about 1 hour before your daily sports activity. Antioxidants provided by eggplants maintain the muscle tone. This vegetable also contains carotenoids which aid in cancer prevention.

3. Apricot
The apricots have been considered a good aphrodisiac for hundreds of years. You can easily figure it out why I included it in this energy foods, top 10. Apricots contain lycopene and vitamin B which drive our hormones and give us the lust for life. It was also scientifically proved the apricots keep the prostate cancer away.

4. Grapefruit
Just try this out. Press a grapefruit in the morning and poor all the juice in an empty glass. Drink it, slowly, on an empty stomach. You will actually feel how your energy revels rise and you will be more than ready to start the new day. Grapefruits also aid in preventing Influenza viruses. Perhaps the most important thing is that grapefruits help us to get rid of excess calories, while providing the high energy.

5. Yogurt
Yogurt is not really a high energy food, but I added it to the list because it helps in preventing all bone problems that might occur in time, like osteoporosis or bone cancer. Moreover, yogurt increases our immunity and protects the stomach from germs.

6. Banana
This exotic fruit contains a lot of fibers. Fibers help us to get rid of the toxic substances contained in our body. The banana is a good doctor for the body because it rejects all impurities. Banana is a good energy food because it provides potassium. Potassium helps in maintaining normal muscle function and also aids the nervous system. Potassium is easily lost by our bodies during stress periods or during strenuous physical activities.

7. Green tea
Asians do not let the day pass without drinking a cup of green tea. They strongly claim that this drink, full of polyphenols, maintains the body strong and energized. They also claim that green tea prevents breast cancer and many researchers tend to agree with them.

8. Cheese
Cheese contains calcium and lactic germs. They act like a dressing for our stomach and strengthen its functions. Most of the scientist claim that if the stomach is healthy the body is healthy too. All you have to do is to eat cheese and you will be free from all disease.

9. Orange
Fresh natural orange juice provides extra energy along with a complete series of vitamins. Check the grapefruit section and use the same tip provided there. Orange also helps with colds and sore throat problems. This fruit increases the number of antibodies and helps you handle to low temperatures which occur during wintertime. Over time, oranges act as a shield against throat and stomach cancer.

10. Tuna
Tuna fish is great for anemic persons. If you need to tone your body, all you have to do is to eat tuna fish. Tuna is rich in Omega 3, a substance which helps both body and mind. Tuna also aids in muscle development, so don’t avoid it if you are performing regular sports activities.

Lemons
Lemons are some of the best diet fruits. They contain a substance, which prevents you from feeling hungry. This means that it reduces appetite and the amounts of food that you eat. Vitamin C is also found in lemons and is known for helping at the weight reduction process. A research of American experts, has shown that women who consumed daily a liter of water with lemon, during one year, lose 4 kilograms without any other effort.

Watermelon
The watermelon is rich in vitamins, minerals and fibers. It is also very nourishing, meaning that it can still easily even the hungriest. The watermelon helps your digestion, because it contains over 90% of water. It also reduces the appetite for sweets, because it contains sugar. A diet based on consumption of this fruit can help you to lose up to 4 kilograms in one week.

Cherries
The cherries contain 80% water, proteins, vitamins, mineral salt and provide only 64 kcal/100g. They are very good for general health, because they decrease the cholesterol level . Cherries also help you to lose weight. If you eat a balanced diet and include a meal of 300g of cherries daily, you’ll start losing weight from the first month. This makes cherries some of the best fruits to use in a diet. However, cherries in large amounts are not indicated for people with high gastric acidity.

Peaches
Are some of the best fruits which contribute in boosting our energy levels. They are easily assimilated by the organism. A peach has a high water content and provides a laxative effect. Also, the peach favors the elimination of toxins. If you follow a 3 days peach diet, without eating anything else instead, you will most probably lose one kilogram per day. This is why peaches have entered in my best diet fruits top 4.