Cold Showers and Fat Burn: Does Temperature Impact Weight Loss?

Each year, you may witness new weight loss trends that common people and celebrities try to support in their quest to battle extra pounds. This year, taking cold showers for fat burning has become popular with bodybuilders, sportspersons, and actors actively trying this method to lose weight. Taking a shower or immersing yourself in water with the temperature set below 20°C might be challenging to endure, but can it really help with weight loss? If you are wondering whether it is worth stepping in the cold shower, keep reading to understand what science says regarding its role in fat burning.

The Buzz Around Cold Showers and Fat Loss

Cold showers for losing fat have become a hot trend in the fitness industry. People are now trying their hand at several forms of cold water therapy like taking cold showers, ice water plunges, and ice baths. However, the effect of cold water therapy on stubborn body fat has become a topic of debate. When ice-cold water hits your body, there will be an immediate drop in temperature. Your body will try stabilizing the internal temperature as an immediate response by initiating thermogenesis. It causes your metabolic rate to spike while lowering the number of calories.

This process of calorie burning through thermogenesis occurs due to brown fat, which doesn’t store energy but burns it instead [1]. It is much different than regular white fat in your body which leads to weight gain by storing unused energy. It explains why ice-cold showers are believed to initiate the fat burning task leading to weight loss. While morning cold showers can be a kickstarter by waking up your senses while promoting blood circulation, how much will it help with weight loss? Let’s explore deeper.

The Science Behind Cold Exposure and Metabolism

You might be surprised to know that the concept of using cool temperatures on the human body to initiate metabolism is not new. It has been studied by researchers for many decades.

• The result of a study held in 2009 featured in the British Journal of Sports Medicine showed that immersing in cold water for five minutes or less helped in improving metabolism[2].
• A 2009 study showed that when people were exposed to cold, it triggered a rise in adiponectin levels in male participants. This protein helps burn excess fat cells[3].
• A Cell Metabolism research conducted in 2014 showed that shivering due to exposure to cold influenced hormonal fluctuations, which helped with brown fat production, which, in turn, triggered fat loss[4].
• Harvard Medical School researchers revealed that brown fat gets activated as your body’s response to cool temperature, and this process helps in burning excess fat[5].
• According to the American Council on Exercise, an individual burns a lot of calories when they are exposed to cool temperatures and begin to shiver[6].
• A PLOS One study researched the effect of cold exposure on rodents, and the result revealed that the rate of metabolism was doubled, and they had better appetite[7]. However, no weight loss was recorded as it had mice as participants[8].
• A 2013 study featured in the Journal of Clinical Investigation showed that exposure to cold will improve BAT or active brown fat tissue activity to promote calorie expenditure[9]. The researchers also opined that frequent cold exposure would be helpful for obese people.
• Another study revealed that exposure to cold caused non-shivering and shivering thermogenesis, which helped in calorie expenditure[10].
• Research by the Journal of Clinical Investigation in 2012 showed that when the study participants were exposed to acute cold, they experienced an 80% rise in metabolic activities to warm exposure[11].

How Cold Showers Might Help You Burn Calories

Here’s how cold showers might help with calorie expenditure.

• Rate of Calorie Expenditure: Research indicates that cold showers might improve metabolic rate by just 1 or 2 calories each minute. So, taking a 10-minute cold shower might help you lose between 10 and 20 calories. It shows that your regular showering time might not help you burn a lot of calories as you might have to spend several hours in the bathroom for meaningful calorie expenditure.
• Lower The Temperature Higher The Calorie Burning: Exposing the human body to a 16-degree cold temperature inside a room causes up to 400 calories to be burned a day. However, these results might differ from one person to the other because another individual experienced 350 calorie expenditure per day. The average calorie-burning among the study participants was just 76 calories, which means just a 2.8% decline occurred in 24 hours. The rate of calorie expenditure might be even lower when taking a cold shower for a few minutes.

What is Brown Fat?

When aiming for weight loss, it’s natural for people to pay attention to reducing white fat, which accumulates in different parts of the body. But, one more type of fat has a pivotal role to play in initiating weight loss, which is brown fat. Brown fat contains mitochondria and consists of several oily droplets that are tinier than the ones found in white fat. This type of fat performs like muscle tissues and is mostly found in your shoulders, chest, and neck. It is capable of maintaining your body temperature by inducing shivering or non-shivering thermogenesis. Brown fat helps in releasing hormones like norepinephrine when your body is exposed to cold temperatures to protect it.

Why Brown Fat Matters in Weight Loss?

1. Promotes Weight Loss: Unlike its white counterpart, brown fat doesn’t store energy but takes care of calorie expenditure while maintaining your basal temperature through heat generation. Such activities of brown fat are highly beneficial for your weight loss.
2. Improves Metabolism: When taking cold showers, your body undergoes a natural thermogenesis process to keep the body warm to defend against extreme cold exposure. Thermogenesis induces more brown fat activation that helps in burning several calories to facilitate weight loss. With regular cold showers, you can improve brown fat activity in the body, promote metabolism, and experience better calorie burning even while at rest[12].
3. Helps in Burning Calories: Brown fat can use up a lot of calories than other fat cell types to help you get rid of stubborn fat and maintain ideal body weight. Study shows that brown fat burns up calories to help you withstand extreme temperatures by maintaining the right internal temperature levels[13]. BAT maintains steady overall calorie expenditure while making sure more calories are burnt than the ones from the food you consume[14].
4. Decreases White Fat: Brown fat is beneficial to cut down white fat, thereby lowering the risk of developing chronic medical conditions like stroke, diabetes, and cardiovascular issues related to obesity as you age. Study shows that by enhancing brown fat in your body, you might be able to decrease white fat levels naturally[15].

Cold Showers vs. Cryotherapy: What’s More Effective?

Cold showers and cryotherapy are popular methods useful for relieving muscle pain, burning fat, decreasing inflammation, and supporting recovery rate after strenuous exercises. While both these methods use cold temperatures to initiate calorie expenditure, some key differences determine their effectiveness.

• Right Cold Temperature Level: The process of cryotherapy is carried out in a temperature-regulated and controlled setting rather than in a bathroom. The sessions of cryotherapy are conducted in special chambers with innovative designs to maintain low temperatures up to -140°C to make your body exposed to uniform cold temperatures. Such temperature-controlled settings help you enjoy effective and precise results when compared to cold showers, where the chances of fluctuations in temperature are high.
• Quick and Convenient: Cryotherapy sessions need just 2 or 3 minutes to complete, making it highly convenient for people having busy work schedules. However, you might have to spend between 10 and 15 minutes while taking a cold shower, which can be time-consuming.
• Comprehensiveness and Beneficial: Cryotherapy sessions not only help you burn more fat and spend several calories but also deliver extra benefits like relieving muscle soreness and inflammation. However, taking a cold shower will not help you achieve such benefits, and the rate of calorie burning and fat loss is skimpy.

While cold showers are easily accessible and don’t cost you a dime, your dream of achieving the ideal body weight without any excess body fat will be fulfilled by Cryotherapy.

How Kolors Uses Temperature-Based Treatments Like Cryomatic

• Kolors Healthcare has introduced the revolutionary Cryomatic treatment for the whole body backed by the latest technology.
• It focuses on enhancing overall health and promoting your body’s natural healing prowess through acute cold air application.
• During Cryomatic treatment, your body will be exposed to cool temperatures ranging between -140°C and -190°C for 3 minutes.
• Cryomatic is highly beneficial for weight loss, quick recovery from injury, and anti-aging

Citation Links

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3. Imbeault P, Dépault I, Haman F. Cold exposure increases adiponectin levels in men. Metabolism. 2009 Apr;58(4):552-9. doi: 10.1016/j.metabol.2008.11.017. PMID: 19303978. – https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/19303978/
4. Lee P, Smith S, Linderman J, Courville AB, Brychta RJ, Dieckmann W, Werner CD, Chen KY, Celi FS. Diabetes. 2014 Jun 22. pii: DB_140513. [Epub ahead of print]. PMID: 24954193. – https://www.nih.gov/news-events/nih-research-matters/cool-temperature-alters-human-fat-metabolism
5. MAX BINGHAM PhD | Joslin Diabetes Center – https://hms.harvard.edu/
6. Lance C. Dalleck, PhD – https://www.acefitness.org/
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8. Ravussin Y, Xiao C, Gavrilova O, Reitman ML. Effect of intermittent cold exposure on brown fat activation, obesity, and energy homeostasis in mice. PLoS One. 2014 Jan 17;9(1):e85876. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0085876. PMID: 24465761; PMCID: PMC3895006. – https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC3895006/
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10. van Marken Lichtenbelt, Wouter & Kingma, Boris & Lans, Anouk & Schellen, Lisje. (2014). Cold exposure – an approach to increasing energy expenditure in humans. Trends in endocrinology and metabolism: TEM. 25. 10.1016/j.tem.2014.01.001. – https://www.researchgate.net
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14. Patrick Seale, [email protected], or Mitchell A. Lazar, [email protected].
    Diabetes 2009;58(7):1482–1484 – https://diabetesjournals.org
15. Lee P, Smith S, Linderman J, Courville AB, Brychta RJ, Dieckmann W, Werner CD, Chen KY, Celi FS. Diabetes. 2014 Jun 22. pii: DB_140513. [Epub ahead of print]. PMID: 24954193 – https://www.nih.gov/news-events/nih-research-matters/cool-temperature-alters-human-fat-metabolism