stupid question

so being outside in this freezing cold weather- are you actually burning more calories keeping your body temp steady or is that ridiculous?

Wed. Dec 14, 10:44am

Google comes to the rescue

Found this on this site: http://www.naturalstrength.com/nutrition/detail.asp?ArticleID=227 (also linked below)
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If you are among the many active people who exercises outdoors despite chilly winter weather, you may wonder if the cold initiates special nutritional needs. The following article addresses some common questions about winter nutrition.

Why do I feel hungrier in the winter than in the summer? A drop in body temperature stimulates the appetite. Hence, if you become chilled during winter exercise (or when swimming, for that matter), you'll likely find yourself searching for food. Such was the case of the triathlete who said "When I get out of the pool and feel chilly after a swim, I'm famished and can't wait to attack food. But when I'm hot and sweaty after a hard run, I'm not hungry for an hour or so." Sound familiar? Your body's "appestat" is located in the brain near the "thermostat." If your body temperature drops, your appetite increases and you experience hunger. Eating "stokes the furnace," generates heat, and helps warm your body. Hence, winter exercisers should always carry carbs with them for fuel. Winter campers, for example, commonly keep a supply of dried fruit, chocolate or cookies near by, so they can "stoke their furnace" if they wake up cold in the middle of the night.

Food's overall warming effect is known as thermogenesis (that is, "heat making"). Thirty to sixty minutes after you eat, your body generates about 10% more heat than when you have an empty stomach. This increased metabolism stems primarily from energy released during digestion. Hence, eating not only provides fuel but also increases heat production.

"Why do I shiver when I get cold?"
Shivering is involuntary muscle tensing that generates heat and offers a warming effect. When you first become slightly chilled (such as if you are waiting outdoors for your teammates to arrive so you can start training), you'll find youself doing an isometric type of muscle tensing that can increase your metabolic rate two to four times. That is, instead of burning 20 calories while you patiently wait for your friends, you may burn 40 to 80 calories as you shuffle around and shift weight from one foot to the other.

As you get further chilled, you'll find yourself hopping from foot to foot and jumping around. This is Nature's way to get you to exercise, generate heat, and warm your body. And if you become so cold that you start to shiver, shivering's vigorous muscular contrations generate lots of heat--perhaps 400 calories per hour. Such intense shivering quickly depletes your muscle glycogen stores and drains your energy.

Clearly, the far more pleasant way to stay warm is to exercise and not suffer though the shivers. An aerobic workout can increase your metabolism by 7 to 10 times above the resting level. This means, if you were to exercise hard for an hour and dissipate no heat, you could raise your body temperature from 98.6 to 140 degrees F. (You'd cook yourself in the process!) In the summer, your body sweats heavily to dissipate this heat. But in the winter, the warmth helps you survive in a cold environment.

Do I burn off more calories exercising in the cold?

Cold weather itself does not increase calorie needs. (And remember: the weather can actually be tropical inside your ski outfit or running suit!) Your body does use a considerable amount of energy to warm and humidify the air you breathe when you exercise in the cold. (For example, if you were to burn 600 calories while cross-country skiing for an hour in 0 degree weather, you may use an estimated 23 percent of those calories to warm the inspired air.) But you use the heat you generate with exercise to warm the air you breathe and prevent your lungs from getting chilled. Hence, you might not sweat as much. But, you don't burn extra calories--unless your body temperature drops and you start to shiver. In the summer, you would have dissipated this heat via sweat.

You may, however, burn off a few more calories to carry extra clothing. Athletes who lug around heavy clothing and sports equipment--skis and ski boots, heavy parkas, snow shoes--do burn more calories. For example, the Army allows 10% more calories for the heavily clad troops who exercise in the cold. But winter runners or race walkers generally wear minimal heavy clothing...

If you are too scantily clad (or have little body fat) and your body becomes chilled, you will need more calories to stay warm. For example, scantily clad research subjects who exercised in the cold (14 degrees F) burned 13% more calories than when they performed the same exercise at room temperature--about 450 vs 400 calsories per hour.

Link

Wednesday, December 14, 2005, 10:57 AM

thanks! perfect...

Wednesday, December 14, 2005, 11:20 AM

hmmm...

interesting. so if i live in a warm climate, i'm likely to eat less, but in a cold climate i'm likely to burn more calories standing outside at the bus stop.

warm = eat less, burn less because no shivering
cold = eat more, burn more because of shivering

Wednesday, December 14, 2005, 12:50 PM

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