Why aren’t we more energetic when it’s very hot outside? Shouldn’t we have more energy because we don’t have to waste it on heating our bodies up?
In: Biology
Maybe to a certain point but it takes a lot of energy to cool your body down and stay in a balance. Too hot and you’re body can literally cook itself alive, or also known as a fever or heat stroke.
Unless it’s very cold, we aren’t really “wasting” energy to warm ourselves up. The energy we’re expending to do other things (move, think, digest, etc.) produces heat as a by-product. This is why we shiver when cold; that extra muscle activity produces a bit more heat so it warms you up. Ordinarily though, there isn’t a mechanism in the body that is expending energy just to keep us warm like central heating in a house.
When it’s hot out we actually have to expend energy *to keep cool*, and we’re less energetic because activity can more easily cause us to overheat.
We are constantly using energy to maintain the same exact body temp no matter if warming us up or cooling us off, but that’s not really the answer. Since our bodies are always kept the same temp inside, our metabolisms are the same (in regards to temp.) Other things can affect our metabolisms, but temp isn’t one of them (until we get into the hyper/hypothemia stages.)
Cold-blooded animals have higher metabolisms in warmer temps, but that’s because their internal body temps are changing instead of always being the same.
OP, are you a lizard?
Is it strange that I think (in my experience) that I generally do feel more energetic/ have more energy when it’s (very) hot outside?
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