It's easy to lose weight in summer. Salads, evening walks, the thought of getting into your togs — motivation comes built in. Winter strips all of that away. Shorter days, colder nights and ‘comfort food’ make it the hardest season to stay on a weight loss plan.
There's even a biological factor working against you: low Vitamin D, which we get from sunlight, has been linked to weight gain.
None of this means winter has to derail you. Here's how to stay on track.
1. Swap comfort food, don't cut it
Pasta and crumble feel good for about twenty minutes. Carbs trigger a serotonin hit — which is exactly why we crave them on a grey Sunday evening — but the comfort doesn't last, and the crash that follows usually leaves you feeling worse, not better.
The fix isn't willpower, it's substitution. A vegetable tagine delivers the same warmth and flavour as mac and cheese, at a fraction of the calories. Build a list of low-calorie, high-flavour, comforting recipes now, so you're not improvising at 6pm on a cold night.
It also helps to have non-food comforts front of mind: a hot bath, a cosy blanket, a brisk walk through autumn leaves. Keep a list. Use it on the days you're tempted to reach for food to comfort you when other comforts will serve you better.
2. Make the most of winter vegetables
Fresh produce gets thinner and pricier in winter, but there's still good food in season — and frozen vegetables are a legitimate, cheap backup for soups and stir-fries year-round (add extra herbs and spices, since freezing dulls flavour).
Skip the starchy vegetables — potato, kūmara — and lean into kale, broccoli and brussels sprouts instead.
3. Make soup your default
Soup delivers warmth and volume for very few calories, and works well as a starter to help fill you up before a main meal. Studies have shown that eating low calorie soup before a meal reduced total calorie intake by 20%.
Batch-cook and freeze it. It's a better fallback than takeaways on nights you're too tired to cook.
Stick to roasted vegetable soups — pumpkin, cauliflower, tomato — rather than cream-based ones, and season generously with garlic, cumin or chilli. A homemade tomato soup runs around 200 calories.
Our Tomato and Pumpkin soups are Formulated Meal Replacements — a warming alternative to your usual smoothie. You can also stir Essentials into a homemade soup for an extra nutritional boost.
4. Keep moving
As the weather turns, it gets harder to get to the gym or go for a walk. The couch does look so warm and cosy. But, as we all know, keeping moving helps burn calories, but it also boosts your metabolism and your feelings of joy, which both help with weight loss.
So, it’s important to find ways to keep exercising, even when it’s cold outside. You don't need a gym. A skipping rope, stair sprints, hallway lunges, or even vigorous housework (roughly 160 calories an hour) all count.
If you do brave the outdoors, dress warmly — walking in the cold can be genuinely energising, and some studies even indicate that walking when it’s cold burns even more calories than in warmer weather. It helps if you can find a walking partner - having someone waiting for you on the corner of the street will really help your motivation.
5. Enjoy hot water & herbal tea
Water intake tends to drop in winter, and hydration matters for both metabolism and appetite control. Hot water with lemon, grated ginger or mint is an easy swap. Herbal teas work too — green tea and rooibos have some research behind them for weight loss, and chamomile, peppermint or liquorice can take the edge off an afternoon sugar craving.
6. Don’t use winter clothes as an excuse to postpone your weight loss
Bulky jumpers and oversized hoodies hide a lot. So it can be easy to tell yourself weight gain isn't really happening, or that it doesn't matter until summer rolls around again.
It does matter. The habits you build (or drop) in winter are the same ones you'll be relying on in spring. Putting off your goals for four months doesn't pause anything — it just means more work later, starting from further behind.
7. Hold onto your "why"
Winter is when motivation is hardest to sustain, which makes your personal reason for losing weight more important than ever — not a generic goal, but the specific one: playing with your kids without getting tired, feeling comfortable at an event, managing a health issue.
Haven't worked out your why yet? Read our blog on discovering your WHY..
Write down your weight loss WHY. Put it somewhere you'll see it daily — the mirror, the fridge, the back door. When motivation dips in the middle of July, that's what pulls you back.
Make winter work for you
Cold weather does make weight loss harder, but not impossible. The difference comes down to preparation — having the right food, the right movement and the right mindset ready before the comfort-food cravings and couch nights hit, rather than trying to find willpower in the moment.
Pick two or three of these tips to start with. Awareness, preparation and small, consistent changes will help get you through to spring in better shape than you started.
