Does Your Body Temperature Have Something To Do With Your Weight?

Our bodies are working on burning up energy to help keep a healthy weight. Yet did you know that those who aren't creating a sufficient core temperature may be heavier than others, packing on pounds? 

"Evidence of a diurnal thermogenic handicap in obesity" is featured in this year's second issue of Chronobiology International, explaining how our body's temperature can interfer with our weight. 

Francesco Portaluppi, the journal editor, explained during the study that obese people oftentimes have a reduced ability to spend energy as heat, which is also understood as an imbalance between energy intake and expenditure.

As the researchers compared body core temperatures between obese participants and normal weight ones, they found that obese individuals had significantly reduced temperatures than counterparts.

"Since body core temperature represents a marker of energy expenditure, results from this study suggest that a diurnal thermogenic handicap can play a crucial role in favoring weight gain in obese subjects," said article co-author Pietro Cortelli, MD, Ph.D., in a news release. 

Researchers are still actively working to understand the how of why this his happening and what causes the imbalance. However, with future studies, they believe it could help bring about a new therapeutic target of treatment for obesity, along with new innovative measures to treat the obesity epidemic.

As it stands, statistics show that 78 million U.S. adults are obese.