Here is a tidbit written by Matt back in April...
http://180degreehealth.blogspot.com/search/label/Basal temperature
So, I guess what Im saying is that I dont want to lead anyone to believe that people who are overweight have a low metabolism. By that definition, they do not. Not at all.
In fact, one of the reasons obese people die younger and generally have more health problems may very well have a lot to do with all of the excess work that their bodies perform in trying to maintain such a large body mass. If anything, the reason lean people have better health and longevity stats is precisely because they are lean, and their total metabolic expenditure and lower food intakes to maintain body weight are lower.
So I dont want my definition of metabolism to cause any confusion. When I say metabolism, I mean body temperature. This is a far better indicator of, pound for pound, what kind of hormonal state the body is in. The REAL definition of metabolism is the sum total of all hormonal and metabolic processes within the body not just calorie burn or oxygen consumption.
Say what you will about calories and aging, but being in a hormonal state of functional starvation, in which the body is trying to conserve calories by lowering its basal temperature, is an unhealthy state that lends itself to greater rates of both degenerative and infectious disease. And yes, overweight people often do have very low body temperatures despite massive total metabolic expenditure. Plus, being in starvation mode makes you want to eat more, and encourages fat formation out of the food you eat increasing total fat mass and total metabolic expenditure.
When you are not in functional hibernation mode, where the body maintains its temperature at ideal levels and is not trying to conserve calories, you dont store fat. You dont get bigger. You dont need to eat more. Your body uses ingested food as energy and expels the excess through heat, activity, an increase in fecal calories, and other mechanisms the body has up its sleeve to prohibit fat accumulation.
So, thin or fat, you want to have a high body temperature a prime symbol of the bodys systems firing on all cylinders. This allows life to be lived more fully with greater disease resistance, more energy, better recuperative powers, and so on. It also lends itself to resistance to fat gain, and a well-controlled appetite. In October, with a basal temperature of 96.2 following 5-months of intense exercise and prolonged calorie deficit, even 4,000 calories could barely satisfy my appetite. Im now getting satisfaction on fewer calories than ever before in my adult life an estimated 2,500 calories per day at most, while my body temperature hovers between 97.5 and 98.0.
