Is it normal for a person's TDEE to increase during cold weather? This week has been brutally cold over here and I have noticed that even though I am eating more calories I am losing weight (fat and muscle). Why is this?
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From obesity researcher Stephan Guyanet:
Two new studies concurrently published in the Journal of Clinical Investigation last week demonstrate what I've suspected for a long time: brown fat can be 'trained' by cold exposure to be more active, and its activation by cold can reduce body fatness.
Men's Health has a layman's overview of the same material. Your recent fluctuations could be due to a whole host of things, but your suspicion that cold weather affects our body's energy expenditure and fat loss is not misplaced. Whether by shivering or by non-shivering heat generation, resisting the cold takes metabolic effort.
Dave Liepmann
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Whenever you calculate a Total Daily Energy Expenditure or Basal Metabolic Rate, you are usually getting a very rough estimate. Even without cold weather, you can expect both to fluctuate based on your activity for the day, stress or types of food eaten.
If it has been unusually cold, it might be sufficient to cause your body to require more energy to maintain an optimal body temperature.
However, try not to focus on individual days or weeks. If you are tracking your TDEE try and concern yourself with being under it* consistently as a good habit over the long term.
- or over it depending on your goals.