Everyone tends to pack on the pounds when fall hits. People exercise less because of the weather. And this tends to transition into more time on the couch with snacks in hand. But just because fall is here doesn’t mean that the slide into sedentary life is inevitable. The trick is to set up and transition into a fall-based exercise program so that you can remain active even while temperatures are dropping.
The best choices for exercising in the fall
You should begin by going over your workouts. Consider what impact cold and wet weather is going to have on your overall motivation. For example, what do you think about the prospect of jogging in cold fall rain? Some joggers find it tolerable or even refreshing. However, most would agree that poor weather conditions just make them skip their usual run. But during the fall and winter, these rough patches turn into the norm.
So be realistic and consider whether or not you’ll be able to stick with your normal exercise routine. If you can’t, then make a note of it for later. The best options for exercise are going to be the ones that are largely independent of weather. For example, lifting is almost always done indoors.
Meeting your goals for water and calories
Next, you’ll want to consider changing your nutritional profile. For example, consider a case where you go trail running every other day. Fall tends to be rather bad for trails. Even apart from the cold, wind and rain will often ensure trails are littered with debris. Slugs will be more common, and trails generally just become inhospitable for regular use. But running burns off a lot of calories. And you might also be used to chugging water after your run.
If you don’t want to gain weight then you should consider what your new caloric maintenance level is. Generally, you can look at your weekly diet and add up all of the calories. Then divide the caloric total by the number of meals. Next, determine how many calories you typically burn during exercise you won’t be engaging in. You’ll need to create a new total by compensating for those calories. So if you burn 500 calories per day that’s 500 fewer calories you can eat if you stop doing that exercise. But there are ways to avoid giving up your favorite foods.
Keeping your motivation up with fitness classes
Fitness classes are often a great solution to the problems of fall exercise. Going back to the example of calories, you could instead just burn them off in other ways. Fitness classes are often a great way to find new workouts that you like at a level that perfectly matches your needs. Likewise, it can often take care of missing social elements as well. If you liked a regular run because you did it with encouraging workout partners then you’ll often find the same thing with fitness classes. They’re often a drop-in replacement for exercises that don’t fit the season.
