I found this on another website and thought it was interesting, the difference between winter and summer, cold and hot in reference to calories and weight.
If you spent a lot of time outdoors, with poorly protective clothes, yes, you would want to eat more calories. When your cold your body shivers to increase body heat. This causes more calories to burn than if you were inside a warm room. But since we don't typically spend a lot of time outdoors in the winter (which is why you're more likely to get sick, by the way), and when we are outside, we bundle up, the increase in shivering isn't enough to cause you to burn significantly more calories, so you don't want to eat more.
In the summer, a different effect occurs. Being outside in the heat causes you to sweat more. The weight loss that people tend to see in the summer is primarily from dehydration, which can be deadly. And that to the increase in exercise from playing around outdoors, and you can see where it's easier to lose weight in the summer than the winter, when we're more stationary.
Glory, ya got me!! I have ice cream in the house for my children and play dates and whatnot. That does NOT mean I am supposed to be eating it no matter how hot (or grouchy) I get in the heat.
We ALSO have red grapes. I will be getting THOSE into the freezer as well
You know what's funny? I didn't even count walking as exercise. I walk from 57th to 72nd street twice a day on work days, and I skip the subway altogether when I can because I think it's sooo gross in the summer -- I'm not one of those New Yorkers who hops on the bus for 2 stops and gets off again. But I don't think about it as exercise, it's just how the vast majority of us get around.
You guys are all right about the chinese food and the ice cream. Luckily, even WITH those foods, I only got up to about 1500 calories for the day, so I don't think it's that huge a setback. But you know what I do notice? I felt really gross and bloated this morning when I woke up, and it's been weeks since I felt that way and I know it's directly related to the food I ate last night. That'll teach me, to be sure.
In terms of solutions, til this heat wave breaks, I'm just going to play my yoga DVD on my laptop and do my yoga in my bedroom, which means I'll have to rearrange a few things, but I think I can make the space.
Now. Food.
Ugh.
Guys, I hate cooking. I hate cooking and I hate grocery shopping and I would rather just go to restaurants all summer. Ha. Right. Like I can afford it.
(Now I'm just whining -- forgive me).
Oooh, maybe I will order from freshdirect! They have fabulous, nutritious low-cal meals... hmmm...
I'm one of those folks who loses my appetite when I get hot so these heat waves actually help me a bit. However once it gets over 100, I do skip my outside exercise but that's when I turn to the DVDs.
You need some options other than exercising in your living room. Otherwise, if your routine is disrupted, as it was by this heat, you have to give up entirely, because you've got no alternatives planned.
When I first started losing weight, I had the opposite issue: I walked several miles out of doors. Bad weather kept throwing me for a loop. And I was determined to exercise every day, so I had to work out alternatives. (I couldn't exercise in my living room, unlike you, because I lived over my landlord, an irritable older lady who heard every noise I made overhead, from my squeaky kitchen drawer that swelled in the humidity to my microwave pinging when it finished a cooking cycle.)
I'd spring for a pay-as-you-go yoga class held at some nearby airconditioned studio. Or start checking into gym or YMCA memberships. There was an article in the Times this past weekend about hotels that let you use their pools for a fee. One day or two during a day over 100 degrees is a splurge but a rate treat. (Kind of like ... dare I say ... a splurge on ice cream.)
I would not get takeout Chinese. I'd go to a good deli with a big cold salad bar & assemble my plastic container there. One container of savory stuff & another of cool delicious fruit, like watermelon, cantaloupe, honeydew, sliced strawberries.
I am from Tennessee where the humidity can be unbearable a lot of the time and since I moved to New York (well, maybe losing 158 pounds has helped some too ) the heat here has not been too much for me until this week. The past 3 days, today included, have been too much for me. Monday, I made it through all my workouts but felt like I was gonna vomit and/or pass out before I had finished up my last mile on the treadmill. Tuesday, luckily, was my day of rest and today I have opted to do just 40 minutes of HIIT upon waking. We live in a double wide, the only AC is a little floor model that does nothing and it was close to 90 degrees inside here when I woke. Maybe I am using the heat as an excuse but I can live with that but I won't veer off my eating plan. This past week I have stayed under 1500 calories and if I make it through the end of today, it will be a complete 7 days I stayed completely on plan with my food so for that I am happy.
You've gotten some great advice here from the others and though I don't have any to offer, I just wanted to let ya know I sympathize with ya on the heat issue
I moved to Vermont to get away from heat like this. I don't handle heat well at all and losing weight hasn't helped.
Pretty much I only want to eat cool things - yogurt and berries, salad, and gallons of water. But I am craving salt too which is unusual for me and I think must have something to do with the heat and salt loss from sweating.
I live in Arizona, where the normal summer temperatures are 115-120, and it doesn't cool down at night. It stays close to 100 even in the middle of the night. You can't use the heat as an excuse to get off track, you just have to use it to your advantage.
Summer foods and fruits, lots of grilling, and water exercise. I walk 3 miles every morning, even in the heat, and I just usually think of it as sweating off extra calories, but I know that's not for everyone.
You've gotten lots of great advice here, I just wanted to throw in my encouragement and let you know that you don't have to let summer get in your way.
No, it's not cooler in Vermont. Record breaking yesterday (mid 90's) and close to it today (more mid 90s). Maybe a break to the low 90's tomorrow. But I moved north 30 years ago from south eastern Pennsylvania where hot humid weather lasts all summer long.
I would not survive places like Arizona (even if it is a "dry heat").
I wanted to give a shout from here in Ontario. Its hot as heck here too! LOL. The humidity is really bad right now and with the humidex its 41C (106 f). I did manage to workout in my basement last night with a big fan blowing at me. I made a joke to my husband that is sweat really did make you lose weight I would be down 40 pounds Do you have a barbecue? We cook most of our dinners on the grill when its hot. Mind you, we have an air conditioner in the window but it works really hard in this heat. Yesterday I made 10 calorie slushies with ice and crystal light in a blender. Stay cool and try not to let the heat throw you off track.
Its hot here until September so I guess I'm used to it and enjoy it, just means I'll sweat more during exercise. Try to get out early and then as the day goes on your body will adjust rather than going straight from AC to hot and just drink tons of H2O and find some water to play in. I hear you on the oven thing, we try to not use it during the summer and stick to grilling or stove cooking.
) the heat here has not been too much for me until this week. The past 3 days, today included, have been too much for me. Monday, I made it through all my workouts but felt like I was gonna vomit and/or pass out before I had finished up my last mile on the treadmill. Tuesday, luckily, was my day of rest and today I have opted to do just 40 minutes of HIIT upon waking. We live in a double wide, the only AC is a little floor model that does nothing and it was close to 90 degrees inside here when I woke. Maybe I am using the heat as an excuse but I can live with that but I won't veer off my eating plan. This past week I have stayed under 1500 calories and if I make it through the end of today, it will be a complete 7 days I stayed completely on plan with my food so for that I am happy.
