On Jan 12, 2005, at 2:35 pm, Todd Moody wrote:
> Also, if you think about it. winter should be when the body *uses* the
> stored fat; it should be stored in the autumn, in preparation for
> winter.

Todd,

I thought about this too and I think my reasoning is similar to
Wally's.  I picture a paleo world
where in late summer / autumn you would gain some fat (possibly in
reaction to eating large quantities of fruit and nuts); in winter you
would be forced to burn your body's stores, but your body would be
trying hard to conserve it given the scarcity of food; then in
sring/summer your body weight normalises because food is plentiful and
you have more important things to do like chase around finding a mate,
or some such occupation.

The reason I asked about cold tolerance is because of a contradiction
here- if being in permanent ketosis causes your thyroid gland to slow,
then you'd expect your extremities to go cold (as in hypothyroidism).
But Thomas says his resistance to cold improves.  This makes sense to
me, as permanent cold hands would cripple your hunting in winter,
whereas cold hands in the summer probably indicate some unusual
situation (being in icy water etc).  I'm not sure how valid this
reasoning is.  I've pretty much made it up on the spot!  But then
there's been no end to the surprise adaptations (however small) I've
realised the human body has since I started eating paleo.

Ashley