Losing tolerance to winter cold

[PamNY]

Same for me. My cold tolerance is greater now and I'm 60.

[Kiwi Stoker]

Remember as a kid you would spend hours in the pool. lake, beach etc and didn't feel cold at all? And now as an adult you have to be very hot and then after 5 mins in the water you run back to your towel?

[jessmarimba]

I lost my cold tolerance when I hit puberty, pretty much. I happily wear long sleeves if it's below 80. I don't swim unless other people think the water feels like bath water. I wish I could tolerate it better b/c I'd love to do a tri. Maybe I need a wool bathing suit...c'mon, Ibex? Icebreaker?

But on the other hand, I also overheat now very quickly when I'm working out. So while I looooove my down jacket and will wear it all day at the office if I walked in with it on, I can't run in more than a long-sleeved shirt unless it's below 20. I'll be freezing for a few minutes (and my feet and hands will be numb for 15-20) but I'll feel like I'm suffocating once I warm up.

[NbyNW]

I think my cold tolerance has increased due to my last two winters in Edmonton.

[OakLeaf]

I lost a lot of tolerance between about 18 and 35. Except for the asthma-related episode I mentioned in the other thread, it seems to have been pretty stable since then. Although since I started having (brief, mild) hot flashes I occasionally have a few seconds when I'm not freezing!

I'm losing heat tolerance too, it seems, and that worries me a lot more than the other.

[Crankin]

Mine has increased, as far as exercising in the cold. As for just walking around, like in the city, I can tolerate it, as I have better clothes now, but I prefer NOT to do it. I love being outdoors in the winter, but I am working hard!
I have lost tolerance to heat since leaving AZ, but what I really have no tolerance for is heat and humidity. It increased a little over the past 2 summers, which were really hot here.
I understand why people want to move to places where it doesn't get cold, but I love the change of seasons/winter sports so much, I will never do it. I also couldn't live somewhere where the winter was longer than it is here. Really, January and February are real winter here, with some variation in December and March. Some years we get snow in those months and other years, not. It's been mostly not in the past couple of years.

[lph]

My tolerance to cold varies a great deal according to what I'm doing, if I'm hungry or full, drunk or not..., and how my immune system is doing. If I'm cold, my body is telling me that I need to do something about it, or I will end up sneezing and miserable. I don't think it's changed with age. But I'm better at dressing the cold out.

But Norwegian has two different words for distinguishing between being cold ("kald"), and feeling cold ("fryse", literally "freezing"). Being "kald" just means that you can feel something is cold but it's not bothersome, i.e. you're generating enough heat from inside. But if you "fryser" it means you're bothered by the cold, feel uncomfortable and need to warm up.

The tipping point between those two states changes from October to February