6 Sneaky Winter Weight Gain Traps

The gradual creeping up of the scale and increasing trouble buttoning your jeans may seem as if it's come out of nowhere, but chances are, one of these cold weather problems is to blame.



You're programmed from thousands of years of history

When humans were hunter-gatherers, it was necessary to pack on weight for long, hard winters when food was less readily available. "When we were foraging, skinny people were less likely to make it through the winter," says Dr. Lawrence Cheskin, Director of the Johns Hopkins Weight Management Center and Professor at the Bloomberg School of Public Health. "There was a survival tactic of gaining weight in and before it." We still try to conserve energy when it's cold because it's our natural way to avoid burning more calories than necessary. However, given modern living conditions, stocking up on food is more likely to add a clothing size than it is to keep us alive until spring.