I, a 6’4" 200 pound 23 year old guy, would burn 2117 calories a day if i just sat on my duff.
If I were a woman of the same (frightening) proportions, I would burn 1765 calories doing the same thing. If I were smaller, as most women are, I would burn fewer calories yet.
So I’m burning noticeably fewer calories if i’m a woman. Burning calories is an exothermic process. If I’m burning fewer calories, i’m generating less heat, and so i’m colder. right?
You’re quite correct Spruu. The thing is that you’re not saying anything that Cecil hasn’t already said.
See in the column where it says “Men have more heat-generating muscle mass. Muscles are well supplied with blood vessels. The more muscle, the more blood flow and the more warmth.”?
That’s what’s causing men to burn most of those extra calories. Muscle burns calories constantly, whether you’re asleep or awake. The more muscle you have the more energy you burn.
You’re right that this burning of calories is exothermic and generates heat, but Cecil already said this, just in a slightly different way.
More to the point, Spruu, that’s a bit like answering the question “Why does my Hummer have worse fuel economy than your Honda?” by saying “Because it burns more fuel”.
In point of fact, it’s more like the question “why does my hummer run hotter than your honda” and the answer “because it burns more fuel.” Were my question/answer akin to yours, it would be stated as “why do men eat more than women” with an answer of “because they burn more calories.” Not quite the same.
However, I’m not an expert on cars so I can’t tell you that a hummer is in fact hotter than a honda: it might have a more effective cooling system, or a bigger radiator, or what have you, and thereby be cooler than a honda.
The human male might (on average) have a more effective heart or more thorough blood vessels, which would radiate that heat, and therefore he would be just as cool as a woman; in fact, his body temperature is the same as hers, so this seems likely.
Furthermore, i’m not quite sure that the muscle mass equation answers any question but those about protein/calorie consumption. I’m not aware of any study that concludes men with more muscle mass are warmer than men with less muscle mass (not to say it doesn’t exist).
Which is more or less irrelevant. Muscles burn calories, accounting for the extra calorific burn of males, that much we do know. This fact explains the fact you discovered. that men burn more claories men burn more calories. Cecil already covered the extra muscle mass issue and by extension the extra calorie issue.
There’s nothing new here.
