If a layer of fat under the fur keeps a animal warm when it's cold, will a layer of fat help keep a human warm?

Most of the chunkier people I know (myself included) seem to run warmer than skinny friends.

Relatively speaking, yes it will.

They are indeed warmer, but because thermoregulation is humans is pretty complex, chunkier people may actually feel colder.

That has always been my excuse…

Yep. This was experimentally established by a guy named Pugh who, in 1949, got some human fat and muscle from the morgue and measured their thermal conductivity. He found that the conductivity of the fat is about half that of the muscle. So you will lose heat more slowly if you have a layer of fat under the skin than if you have muscle directly under the skin.

Blubber hasn’t done me any good in the insulation dept. Actually I tend to feel colder. Wish the lard could melt away, not doing me any good.

Problem is, many obese people also have poor circulation.

I am over weight and it takes me quite a lot to feel cold.

Yes. In males, there are seven layers of sub-dermal fat. Females have two extra layers. At about 60 years of age, they all begin to lose the two layers closest to the skin. With alcohol, certain kinds of substance abuse, anabolic steroids, and some blood thinners, this can happen much sooner. Cosmetically, this appears as dry skin and wrinkles. The skin becomes fragile and is easily torn. Fat serves as insulation. The result is that the elderly feel cold much easier and more intensely, even with excellent cardio output and peripheral circulation. Just ask any older, retired northern transplant in Florida or Arizona. Most of them will tell you that one of the reasons they went south was because the cold finally became too much for them.

Christ, so much for ten minutes of editing time.

Edit: Fat also serves as a mechanism to dispense oils and water to the skin, which is another reason for wrinkles and dryness in old age. It is also a reservoir for holding and dispensing water throughout the surface of the body. This is another reason why the elderly pee so much, They no longer store water in their subdermal fat, and sweat less which affects their ability to regulate the effects of heat.

Well it seems logical that a fat person should fare better for the same reason it takes longer to freeze an elephant than a mouse. The fat guy has less surface area percentage wise than the thin man, and a bigger “core” to store heat

Since losing a whole lot of weight due to weight loss surgery, combined with being in my late 40’s, I’m freezing whenever the weather gets chilly. Not only that, it takes me a long time to warm up once I get cold. Other people that I know who also had weight loss surgery say they get cold really quickly, too, and when it’s cold they feel like they’re freezing.

When I was at my heaviest, I was never a sweaty person but now when it’s cold, I’m really cold.

I have my own office and I keep it really hot in the winter. People go in there and look perplexed at how I can stand it being so hot. Same with my bedroom. I find taking a hot shower helps when I come home and it’s cold and I’m cold.

After last winter, which was bad, I have been saying that I can now understand why people move south when they get older.

I think fat layers help, but there are so many factors I think. My mom has been hot all her life. My grandmother put the one window air conditioner in my mom’s room, which she shared with her always warm sister, instead of in the master, which was where most parents put the air conditioner. My mother and aunt have never been overweight. As children through their 20’s they were quite slender, my aunt always has been, my mom gained some weight in her 30’s and 40’s and then lost it again. Still, I sought she was ever technically overweight by the different measures that exist.

On the other hand my dad has been obese most of my life. He usually is cold. My mom freezes him out. LOL. It’s not very funny really though, he is uncomfortable all the time. I’m easily cold also, it’s horrible. I weigh 20 pounds more than when I got married. I don’t notice any change in how cold or hot I am. I do notice a difference when I’m over-medicated on thyroid meds. That’s the only time I’m warmer than usually. The first time it happened I thought I was having hot flashes at night.

Yes. Look at channel swimmers. They put on a lot of weight before swimming the English Channel in order to keep warm. They burn it off again through the swim.

“The water temperature will be about 60 degrees. Since you are only allowed to wear one bathing suit, one bathing cap, goggles and grease, you will need to add your own “wetsuit” under your skin by gaining weight. Lots of eating! Another way you learn to combat the cold is by swimming in cold water. Get used to swimming in water in the low to mid-50s wearing only wearing a bathing suit and latex bathing cap, and with little shivering afterwards.” (http://www.nycswim.org/Resource/EnglChannelFAQ.aspx).

I live in the temperate Midwest and the only people I see wearing shorts and flip-flops in the winter are the young and fit and the obese.

Lol. I think heavy people also like shorts and flip flops, because it’s just more comfortable, aside from anything to do with temperature. Clothes can feel confining, especially when you’re heavy.

Clothing actually hurts me now. If I have too much fabric around my arms it can become painful. I’m not very heavy, I blame it on low vitamin D.