Originally Posted by TwoTyred

i guess what i'm wondering, is that in some rehab places--
most...all?? Recovering persons aren't allowed booze and
illicit drugs etc.. So why was that guy--who
couldn't bend his own legs or even roll over, given the latitude
to decide his own menu?
Excuse my oversimplifications, but, strap him down and
come back in a year.
i guess we should be thankful that we aren't in such
conumdrums(sp?) ourselves.
FWIW, if i become 750#'s and go to get
treatment, i'd want treatment, not snacks
and hamburgs. Giving him a steady diet
of crystal meth would make more sense to
me....

Originally Posted by manual_overide

So you are saying that I can increase my caloric requirement by keeping my apartment colder this winter and thus burn fat when not excersizing because I'm shivering and trying to keep myself warm?!

+1 for being warm-blooded to help lower heating bills!

Originally Posted by kuan

Hell Elwood Blues could eat four whole fried chickens and a coke and still somersault down the church aisles.

I'm not doing too well on my weight loss. Mine's an addiction. This year I wanna ski faster and all the trails around here are anaerobic for me. Makes me real hungry afterwards.

Originally Posted by JohnnyCool

Dude! Come on! That was Jake not Elwood! (duh) Elwood got the white toast - no butter.

Originally Posted by Enthalpic

You bet! The only catch is you need to be cold enough to shiver.

Originally Posted by DannoXYZ

Yeah, the majority of calories consumed is to keep yourself warm and to a lesser extent, move around. Obviously if you sit all day doing nothing, your calorie requirements will go down.

Not so obvious is that the higher your body-fat percentage goes up, the less energy you need to keep yourself warm because fat is a much, much better insulator than muscle.

Then the body size reduces calorie requirements as well. The bigger and rounder you are, the less heat you shed relative to your volume because volume to surface-area ratio goes up. You only shed heat through your skin's surface-area and if your volume under that skin increases by 8x, but surface area only increases by 4x, you're much, much better at retaining heat. So... overall, that guy probably only needs 1000-1250 calories/day to maintain his body-weight, but he was eating a significant amount more than that!

Originally Posted by Enthalpic

Cooler temperatures will increases the amount of heat lost (if you are not clothed well) but has a very minimal effect on caloric burn rate; as most of the heat would have been produced anyways.

Originally Posted by cooker

I wonder if it has been studied. My desk is in the uninsulated section of the basement and I'm sure I pace, tap my feet, or get up and walk around more when I'm working at home and it's cold down there than when it's warm.