Weight loss during winter can be a real difficult task as this is the time for those delicious Christmas sweets and treats to be laid on the table. Those of you who are going through their weight loss diets and programs will find it difficult to cope with sweet Christmas pudding, which is the most mouth watering dish of this season.

Winter foods one can eat which is healthy is that of a rich intake of proteins and minerals to help you cope with winter illness too. These winter weight loss tips will help you in holding back those cravings for food that will add on to your calories.

Fill up with Salad

Depending on the type of salad you eat and the energy content of the dressing you use, you can reduce your calorie intake by up to 18% by eating a large salad prior to your main meal. This is achieved by stretching and distending your stomach giving feelings of fullness which in turn makes you less likely to eat large quantities high calorie winter comfort food. If sourcing salad greens during winter is difficult, other low calorie vegetables such as zucchini, broccoli, cauliflower and cabbage will work too! Also try substituting mashed potato for mashed cauliflower with a dash of pepper and parmesan cheese for taste. This will reduce calories and starch.

Portions

Watching your portion size is a key factor in helping to reduce your weight or to prevent winter weight gain. A good guide of what portion is right for you, is to look at your hands – a serve of red meat should be no bigger than the palm of your hand (chicken and fish can be the size of your full hand), the carbohydrate (eg potato, kumara, bread, pasta or rice) should be no larger than fist size and the vegetables should fill two cupped hands. Or more simply; have ½ the plate filled with vegetables, ¼ with meat/chicken/fish/beans/lentils and the remaining ¼ with carbohydrate.

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.

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!

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.