Calorie allowance and weather/temperature/climate

KisVihar
KisVihar Posts: 6 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
Does anyone have any information as to whether climate/temperature affects how many calories you need?

For example, for most of the day yesterday and today I've been shivering - I mean REALLY shivering with cold (inside the house - Hungary is cold at the moment!) and I find when I am cold, I am far more hungry. I try to stay under my calorie goal, but when I literally shake with cold for 12 hours or more, I find I need to eat extra food.

I get on the exercise bike to warm myself up, but I am still really hungry.

On a mild day, I don't crave food - I can easily stay under my calorie goal. On a shivering cold day, I need to eat! And in summer, when it can hit 40 degrees C, I am never hungry, as long as I drink loads more water than usual, I am fine.

Interested in any comments. :)

Replies

  • sarski77
    sarski77 Posts: 79
    I'd love to find out more about this too!

    I've also been SO cold and hungry all week!
  • sarski77
    sarski77 Posts: 79
    I am sure we tend to burn more when it's cold (i.e. our body require more energy to maintain an adequate temperature) but I'd love to know to what extent!
  • socajam
    socajam Posts: 2,530 Member
    I am like you, when it is really cold I hungry all the time; the only thing that can help me is soup. I find eating soup during any cold spell really curbs my appetite, otherwise I will be eating and that means eating all day.

    So I normally cook a big pot of fish soup with carrots, Japanese pumpkin, okra, small amount of potatoes and some dumpling, once I eat that I full for the rest of the day.
  • Medic911ETH
    Medic911ETH Posts: 31 Member
    http://www.webindia123.com/health/diet/calorie/calorie.htm

    You will have to copy and paste as I have not yet learned the html needed to make a working link.

    There are a number of sources available online, but what I have been able to gather from reading, cooler climates stimulate increased appetite due to an increase in the calories burned by the body to maintain core temperature. There are other factors, but this addresses your question.
  • KisVihar
    KisVihar Posts: 6 Member
    Thanks for the replies! :)

    It figures, because with horses (I keep horses) if you they are outside in the cold weather 'naked', and you don't increase their food intake, they drop weight. If you put blankets on them and don't increase their food intake, they stay around the same. If it's really cold, I have to increase their food intake AND put blankets on them for them to maintain weight. These are all retired horses who don't do any real exercise.

    In mild weather, they need very little food and they don't lose weight and aren't so hungry. In the summer, they get fat on one blade of grass....!

    Just been out for a 30 minute fast walk with 2 ponies (they are too small to ride, so they get walked like dogs!) and have come home and eaten two oat biscuits. I am still so cold and hungry!

    I am no WAY going to be under my calorie goal today. :( Oh well....!!

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