Turn Down That Thermostat

I guess there is one advantage to living in a drafty old New England farm-house, turns out I could be burning more fat.

I've written before about how I think air conditioning makes you fat, but it was interesting to read how allowing ourselves to get cold also triggers additional fat loss (but only if you don't eat more).

This got me thinking about our modern standards of room temperature control.    I have never understood why the same people who run their air conditioning so high in the summer that you have to wear a sweater indoors, then run their heat so high in the Winter that you sweat if you wear a sweater.

I also don't understand people who essentially shut their houses off to the fresh air twelve months a year.

Besides the damage that this does to the environment, it also doesn't really seem to be good for us weight-wise.   Yeah, we're cooler in the summer, but maybe it's good to get good and hot every now and then and get a good sweat going on.

Same thing in Winter.  It's nice to be warm, but going outside and getting good and cold may help us to burn off a little extra fat.

It may be that exposing ourselves to temperature extremes revs our metabolisms in ways we don't fully understand yet, and when we shield ourselves from ever being too hot or too cold, we somehow interfere with how nature intended our bodies to operate.  

So, lower that thermostat in the Winter, and jack it up a bit in the Summer.   Better yet, turn off both your heating and cooling more often and just open the windows.    You'll get some fresh air, and do the environment good.