Heat and Calorie Consumption

Have you ever wondered why you don’t feel like eating in the middle of a heat wave, or why you overeat in the cold winter months? I began thinking about this recently because we are suffering a heat wave, here in sunny Cyprus. 

When I began this way of eating it was January, the weather had turned chilly (for me at least) and on my ‘fast’ days I was really cold. I understood this to be normal and continued on, losing the accumulated weight quite rapidly. 

My weight-loss took a bit of a pause (and a small U-turn) and when I finally got myself back into the routine I found that the weight wasn’t shifting. Not only was I sticking to the plan I had increased my water intake too. But the weight was stubbornly refusing to shift at any kind of sensible rate (you may have noticed by my recent weigh-in updates). 

It occurred to me that losing weight in the UK may be different from here. There, the summer temperatures rarely rise above 28 or 29 C and in winter can frequently dip below 0 C, this means there is always a deficit between ambient temperature and what the body needs to maintain its normal temperature of 37 C. 

Conversely, when summer ambient temperatures reach 35 or even 40 C here there is very little or no deficit.

What does the body do when it doesn’t need to expend energy to maintain body heat? It evidently requires fewer calories to maintain basic metabolic functions. Additionally, when the temperature gets as high as it has here, this year, it is too hot to move (never mind maintain an active exercise regimen), so there are even fewer calories being consumed.

It is taking a vast amount of thought and mental energy to even maintain a low enough calorie intake (but above 1200 kCal) on non-fast days, let alone create a big enough deficit to lose weight. I must admit that fluid fasting has become easier, I’m too hot to eat and de-hydrated enough to keep consuming large amounts of water. In addition, I’m drinking so much that I my stomach is rarely empty enough to feel hungry.

However, the fat is refusing to shift. Whoever said that exercise has little bearing on weight loss was lying. I hope that the scales will start to move again, when I do.

This is all just speculation with no real since behind it, but it seems to be the only thing making any sense.

This article Summer Weight Gain Is Real!? may hold the answers (considering that I've been dripping with sweat just walking from the veranda to the bathroom).

Happy weight-loss peoples.