6. Research priorities

1. Establish by unified criteria the environmental conditions conducive to regular seasonal recurrence of bottlenecks in human energy metabolism.

2. Define the extension, distribution and severity of the phenomenon in the world.

3. Investigate the causes of interindividual variance of seasonal body weight change. Does it reflect a difference in the coping strategies? If so, what is the nature of these strategies?

4. The permanent impact on energy metabolism, of the timing and sequence of seasonally recurring growth arrest and acceleration.

5. Establish the chronological sequence of body responses to seasonal energy imbalance.

6. Investigate the BMR contribution to seasonal energy-sparing: identify the nature and severity of seasonal challenges needed to elicit BMR responses.

7. Improve methodologies to explore adaptive changes in time allocation and energy expenditure.