Effect of environmental temperature on work and resting metabolism

¹ Defence Science Laboratory, Delhi, India

Observations of basal metabolic rate were taken on seven young adult male subjects at convenient intervals throughout a year. The energy expenditure was studied on 11 subjects while taking part in four military activities, i.e. marching, parade, rifle drill and physical training exercise, both in summer and winter. There was no significant difference in the BMR values of the subjects for different months. The winter values for energy expenditure of different exercises were about 3% higher than those of summer. But when these values were corrected for the weight change in winter, the differences in the energy expenditure values were not significant. It has been concluded that climate has no influence either on the resting or the working metabolism. However, due to the additional clothing worn in winter, the total energy expenditure may be a little higher in winter.