Traditional Culture Encyclopedia - Weather inquiry - Some people are afraid of heat, while others are afraid of cold. What happened?

Some people are afraid of heat, while others are afraid of cold. What happened?

Fat is a good insulation material, while obese people have thicker subcutaneous fat, just like wearing a close-fitting fur coat. It stands to reason that obese people should be able to bear hardships more than thin people, but the actual situation is just the opposite. In winter, I often hear obese people complain that the weather is cold and they wear more clothes than others, which makes them look bloated.

What is the reason? It is possible that the thermal efficiency of obese people is different from that of thin people. After studying the phenomenon that obese people are afraid of cold, some scholars put forward the hypothesis of heat production: no matter how much heat is produced, thin people have high thermal efficiency; The thermal efficiency of obese people is very low. This is like saying: thin people are like a well-burned boiler, and the fuel put in can be completely burned to quickly heat the boiler; The fat man is like a boiler with poor combustion. The fuel put in can't burn out, and the boiler can't heat up. This thermogenic hypothesis is supported by some scientific research results. For example, some scholars have found that obese people show that post-meal heat production is significantly lower than that of non-obese people from an early age.

Therefore, although obese people have a "fur coat" more than thin people, they often feel cold when they are cold because of the low efficiency of converting food into heat energy.

In addition, it is precisely because obese people have a "fur coat", which makes it difficult for them to dissipate heat, so in hot summer, obese people are more afraid of heat than normal people.