If you put on weight during the winter, you're not the only one. Here's why it happens and how to prevent it.

 For many years, people have believed that gaining weight in the winter is normal, with the typical person gaining five pounds more at this time of year. Doctors claim that weight increase during the winter is a real phenomena, even though evidence suggests that the five pounds may be a bit of an exaggeration.

Dr. Kunal Shah, an assistant professor in the endocrinology section at the Rutgers Robert Wood Johnson Medical Center, tells Yahoo Life, "I see this with a lot of patients." The director of New York Weight Wellness Medicine, Dr. Dina Peralta-Reich, concurs. "It's fairly typical," she informs Yahoo Life. Many people gain weight over the holidays, which they then usually blame on their New Year's resolutions in January.losing the plot.”

However, why do people gain weight in the winter and is there a good approach to prevent it? Physicians dissect it.

What effects of winter weight gain are reported by studies?

Although each individual is unique, the commonly mentioned gain of five pounds over the winter months is not backed by scientific evidence. A New England Journal of Medicine study involving 195 adults had participants weigh themselves four times a year. Researchers discovered that many people gained an average of 0.4 pounds of weight as the temperature grew colder. They also put on an extra 0.8 pounds during the holiday season, for a total average weight gain of 1.2 pounds. Still, a lot of people began to lose weight during the holidays.

According to a another modest study, female college students gained roughly 1 pound from fall to winter when their weight was monitored from May to January. Most adults gain between one and two pounds annually on average.The Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health claims that.

Why do people gain weight in the winter?

There are numerous variables at work. Dr. Mir Ali, a bariatric surgeon and the medical director of the MemorialCare Surgical Weight Loss Center at Orange Coast Medical Center in Fountain Valley, California, tells Yahoo Life that "the majority of weight gain over the winter is dietary." Not that it helps around the holidays. According to Shah, "people are eating more during holiday get-togethers and are less conscious of what they eat." He continues by saying that a lot of people have a tendency to drink more alcohol than normal around the holidays, which can result in weight gain.

Holiday travel is more common, and as a result, Ali says, people may neglect their workout regimen. Peralta-Reich notes that the lower temperatures are also inconvenient. "People are growing more inactive"and, due to the weather, aren't engaging in as many of their outdoor activities.

There's a theory that your body will want to hold on to extra fat during the colder months for evolutionary reasons — the idea is that once upon a time, food was less available during the winter months — but it's just a theory at this point. “It's possible that this is true, but we don't have any studies to back that up,” Shah says.

How to avoid winter weight gain ? 

Doctors believe there are things you can do to assist battle weight gain throughout the winter, even though the exact cause varies from person to person.

"We advise our patients to exercise caution when consuming carbohydrates and sugars," explains Ali. You don't need to exercise the same caution when eating veggies and protein. Additionally, he advises being aware of how much alcohol you consume. He makes the observation, "The more food and alcohol you consume, the more calories you're taking in."

When attending a party, Peralta-Reich advises making a pre-planning list of your drinks. She advises, "Be mindful, make plans in advance, and declare that you will only have one drink." She suggests selecting a beverage you are certain to love.and relishing it. "You just need to be aware of what and how much you're eating. You don't have to severely restrict yourself."Shah advises giving yourself some grace during this time.

 "I tell all of my patients that I'm not looking for them to lose weight over the holidays, but my goal is to have them maintain their weight during this time," he says. "That seems to work well for most people." Considering that eating hearty snacks and meals is common during the winter, Shah frequently suggests that his patients focus on exercise during this time. "People can certainly try to exercise indoors, even with body-weight exercises in their own home — I recommend that to a lot of patients," he says.