Wildlife Researchers & Scientists have recently coined an expression for the dire situation facing the world’s Polar Bear population, they call it “Walking Hibernation”…

Walking Hibernation describes a situation, where, due to the shorter Winters & lack of available opportunities for food, Polar Bears have been forced to essentially set their metabolisms to “idle”.  This leads to a “hoarding” of their fat stores.  The bears do this however as a measure of self-preservation, as they are losing weight too quickly. The net-weight of Polar Bears has been reducing annually due to the increased amount of physical activity they have been required to do, having to travel further and further each year to find food.  Note, for Polar Bears losing too much weight is a bad thing, their fat stores help to keep them warm.

There are some interesting parallels here.  In Paleolithic times we had to hunt for our own food, a dramatically different energy/calorie balance equation for each meal than in modern times.  Secondly, the metabolic sequelae of loading yet another tub of ice-cream into our shopping trolley will never offset that of eating it.

Have you created your very own state of “walking hibernation?”

Has your metabolism been set to “idle” like the Arctic Bears?

If so, how far should you travel to get your next meal?