We analyzed the correspondence of the activation energy of metabolism (E) in rats under pharmacological torpor and hypothermia to the findings of the WBE-theory of ecology based on the studies of hibernating mammals: true hibernators and daily heterotherms. We found that in rats in a state of pharmacological torpor lasting about a day, E was close to that of daily heterotherms, while in anesthetized rats with hypothermia lasting for several hours, E was significantly lower, which is in sharp contradiction with the theory. We have shown that in rats classified as homeotherms, at short-term hypothermia the changes in metabolic rate precede the changes in body temperature by the interval Δt. We hypothesized that in poikilotherms, changes in metabolic rate may lag changes in body temperature by (-) Δt. Given this time shift, we proposed an approach to E correction in order to minimize its deviation from theoretical predictions.