According to this report in Live Science, cranking the AC doesn’t help anyone when it comes to maintaining or losing weight: “When living in constantly comfortable temperatures, the body doesn’t have to work to keep cool or warm, as said by a 2006 article in the global Journal of Obesity”. Specifically, a woman’s summer wardrobe tends to be less clothing on hot days, while a man in a formal office has to wear a long suit and tie all year, despite the outside temperature.
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The PPD measures what percentage of workers are probably feeling either too hot or too cold. Now, a new study suggests that the way climate control in office buildings has been designed in the past couple of decades is discriminatory and doesn’t reflect reality. His name is the “thermal comfort model”, and he is making the workplace even MORE hard for women.
A recent study shows that gender-bias could affect the operation of office thermostats for heating and cooling.
Perhaps it is time to change the formula and consider the metabolic rates of professional women everywhere. It’s no secret that metabolic rates vary widely across individuals, which means a few will feel more comfortable than others. Women have slower rates than men because we naturally have more body fat – and muscle burns calories faster, aka men heat up faster.
Cold isn’t just uncomfortable, it’s disruptive to work capacity.
Researchers put 16 women in a sealed chamber for 45 minutes, one-by-one, while they studied, read and worked on computers. Sensors strapped to the body measured perspiration, humidity, heart rate and of course temperature, both on the body’s surface and on the inside (a special electronic pill was swallowed).
As mentioned by the New York Times, that 1960s rate was calculated on “on a 40-year-old man weighing about 154 pounds”.
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Unfortunately, it’s not enough for companies to turn down the air conditioning to make a balance. Ultimately, this could translate in energy savings and a more reasonable ambient comfort level for both sexes.
