Winter (Cold) Calorie Intake

YoshiMon

YoshiMon

New member
There has been something that I've been thinking about this winter and wanted to see if what I suspect is true. So many things about what we 'know' when it comes to our human bodies are counter intuitive at times.

This has been my 1st winter where I've kept to a rather strict diet/lifestyle. My calorie intake has remained pretty much the same for a while now. (Since about Aug 08.) Now here in Fla it's pretty warm. Most of the time it's about staying cool over trying to stay warm. However recently a bit of winter did finally blow down here and I noticed that when that happened I started feeling much more hungry than I was previously.

To the point that one week where it stayed rather cold I really felt pretty awful. As bad as I had felt when I 1st moved to my new diet. Busy with life when I would mention it to anyone we would talk about how the flu was going around or something to that effect but I knew that that just did not feel right.

Instead I formed the theory that the cold weather had shifted my body's metabolism to a higher rate to keep itself warm. And as a result I was burning more calories than I normally would be.

I feel it's a sound theory but you never know so I thought I'd throw my theory out there for some peer review.
 
I've noticed that during the winter too. Maybe it's the same sort of thing that makes some people eat less in the summer. I know sometimes it's so hot, I get so drained I don't even feel like eating anything, only drinking liquids.
 
I noticed since i lost weight im less hot in the summer and colder in the winter ... on the other hand i can wear shorts and skimper clothes in summer which probably contributes, and cute winter woolies without looking like a tent :D
 
I think it might be because of one of two reasons.
the first is that it takes energy for our body to warm up from the cold, so we burn more calories, and thus wanting to eat more.
the second is that historically, winter was a time of no garentee of eating, so whenever food was about during the cold months, its built into us to eat more
 
I've dropped 15 lbs, and I noticed my self getting cold when normally I would be fine. It makes sense to me you would run cooler, after all this is less insulation.
 
I've dropped 15 lbs, and I noticed my self getting cold when normally I would be fine. It makes sense to me you would run cooler, after all this is less insulation.
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And there is that too. This is the 1st winter in a few that I've had less 'natural insulation' going on.

But the main part of my theory if you will is that all things being equal, as much as they could be given the dynamics of the human body, constantly being in a colder environment will force the body to ratchet up it's metabolism to keep itself warmer. And with that higher metabolism your nominal calorie requirements change.

Now there are all sorts of caveats to a theory like this. One off the top of my head would be that when the body gets cold for any given time automatically wants more calories to 'stoke up' during the less abundant season.
 
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