What an interesting anecdote. I wonder if mentally-induced fever that is _not_ associated with high stress levels could do something similar, or if a certain level of mental anguish is a prerequisite in addition to the fever itself.
That is really interesting, thanks for sharing. I was thinking of something a little less impressive:
As a child I got very sick at one point and had to be in the hospital. After being discharged, my mother had to keep monitoring my temperature. She would measure it two or three times a day for weeks, and I _always_ had a fever, leading her and the doctor to think I wasn't fully recovered yet. At one of my post-sickness checkups, the doctor suggested my mother stop measuring for a few days. She did, and the next time she measured after this period my temperature was back to normal. The doctor's suspicion, and eventual conclusion, was that my fever was mentally induced; he said I was so used to being sick and having my temp measured all the time, and constantly having a fever, that my body just reacted to the measurement by developing an actual low grade fever.
I noticed a similar effect when pretending to be sick to avoid school over the years. I'd feel totally fine, but "playing" sick resulted in actually getting a fever when my temperature was checked.
I wonder if that kind of accidental temperature elevation could also have metabolism and weight effects. And if it could be harnessed without legitimate debilitating stress or long periods of meditation, since it seems to be pretty simple to induce.
In the end I don't think there's any real trick to weight loss - it's all about calories, in my opinion. But how our mind can impact our physical state is always a fascinating topic to me regardless!
