I used to be very warm-blooded. Now I'm always cold. (Thyroid is fine). I feel like I am always shopping for another jacket or cover-up. If I'm cold, I want to eat more. Is anyone else dealing with this issue? Is it the loss of fat insulation? Less food being metabolized to give off heat? Not that I'm complaining~I'd rather wear 10 layers of clothes than regain the weight. Just curious....

Oh yes, this certainly happened to me. Can't tell you why exactly, but if you asked me to guess I'd agree with loss of fat insulation foremost and perhaps also very slight metabolic cooldown.

Slower metabolism. Has nothing to do with less fat layers. And age can be a factor too if you are hitting menopause.

Mine got worse and worse with weight loss. I have to be eating right at maintenance or a slight calorie surplus to feel warm these days. And I'm never, ever hot.

Nearly universal problem among reduced-weight maintainers. Your metabolism is doing everything it can to get you to regain some weight by downregulating your metabolism. Since one of the main functions of mammalian homeostasis is maintaining core body temp, your body can "save" over 200 cal/day by lowering your basal body temperature a degree or two. There's no fix to this except to eat more (and gain weight back). If you are careful and add in a lot of weight training, you can make most of the weight gain muscle instead of fat, and not look any heavier even though you weigh more - and have a higher basal body temperature.

I'm originally from Southern California. Even visitng back there in summer I'm never hot internally. And it's been almost six years of this. Oh well

Strange you brought this up because I have been so cold the past few weeks. In Florida the AC in buildings is very cold. But I noticed I'm the only one so cold most of the time so it must be my metabolism. I have a sweater with me and keep having hot tea! The only time I'm not cold is after exercise in the morning. Today I took a walk midday outside in the hot sun to warm up, that helped!

Also I have had nights where I wake up sweating, just my legs. I'm 52 and shown no signs of menopause, but had endometrial ablation (sp?) in 2007 and have no TOM since then, so I don't know what's going on!

Many thanks for the great info and thoughtful answers everyone. I'm so glad I posted. This cold is like a chill from within, not the usual "think I'll put on sweater or close the window". It's strange how my mind veers toward a food solution---brain trying to get me to eat. There's no urge for, say, hot tea. It sounds like another reason why exercise is key to maintenance.

Pattience, I'll look at the article-thanks much. I looked for Dr. Amanda's book at the library but they don't have it. Maybe I'll check Amazon & some other used book sites (congrats on scoring a cheap used copy of her 2nd book).

Arctic Mama, I've been in Alaska in winter and even with my old weight & metabolism, it was COLD!

FWIW, I've found that the cold intolerance has improved slightly over the years. While I'm still much colder than most people, it's not nearly as bad as when I first lost weight. So, there's hope....

My normal-weight friend--well, on the lower side of normal--has always felt cold. She is the one who is carrying the sweater or jacket or overshirt everywhere. And it's not that she has slow metabolism or that she's "reduced obese." I think it's the difference in insulation.

My friend isn't a triathlete--and it's not something I aspire to, myself!

I have two sisters. One is a professional equestrian trainer. She is in great shape. The other has more of a sedentary lifestyle like me. She's overweight.

The horse woman is always cold. We chunky sisters are not.

Oh--when I was at my low goal weight, I also felt cold. Both my friend and I were carrying extra clothes everywhere. But clearly, we weren't cold for the same reasons.

I've definitely noticed that when I GAINED the weight, I was noticeably a lot warmer all the time. It's been like this since I passed 220 lbs about 10 years ago.

Everyone in my office jokes about how warm I always in, even in winter. Now it's summer and I'm almost always too warm unless I'm in a lot of air conditioning. I'll be pretty excited if I ever lose enough weight to mean that I won't be so hot all the time!!!

My dad was always warm. He would walk around in a short-sleeved shirt in NYC in January and be quite happy. His doctors told him it had to do with having blood vessels very close to his skin's surface. I always assumed that, whatever the cause, I'd inherited this tendency. I agree with you Katy that overall, I'm happy to have this problem! Still, it's one more reminder that I have a new 'normal'. I feel like a stranger in my body sometimes.

I'm focusing on staying really warm & cozy for the time being: keeping the home thermostat up, always with a warm jacket, etc. Most of all, I gotta remember that moving around will warm me up effectively, without adding food into the mix.

I had this with weightloss. Less so now. It used to be worse after I ate my big lunch. I would shiver and would need to turn the heating on in my already warm office. But it has since gone away. Strange.

Perhaps the body adjusts?

Well, it's gone now. I exercise like a crazy man. That could be part of it reading the other posts.

However, it would be like a blood rush to my belly after eating. That's what I put it down to.

Eating cold food (i.e. salads) all the time didn't help matters either.