Blasting the air conditioning
Avoiding the dog days of summer can lead to an increase in poundage, says a study published in the International Journal of Obesity. Air conditioning keeps your body in the comfortable "thermoneutral zone," where no work is required to regulate its temperature. Sounds good – except that you're losing out on the effort your body would otherwise be making to get into the zone. Effort that gobbles up energy and therefore helps to "decrease energy stores," aka fat, says a study led by David Allison, director of the Clinical Nutrition Research Center at the University of Alabama in Birmingham. So turn your thermostat down a bit – your energy bill and the environment will thank you, too.
