I'd rather freeze than run a marathon

I have found some new research into something I had suspected for a long time, being cold uses up more calories than living life in our centrally heated houses.

Ex NASA scientist Ray Cronise along with his co-authors Dr. Bemer and Dr. Sinclair, are looking into the effects of cold on metabolism. The research started when Ray struggled with losing weight after reaching the 'plateau' stage many of us are familiar with. He had tried a lot of the different diets out there with the same results, initial loss up to the plateau, when he would lose focus and regain the weight.

By chance he heard about an Olympic swimmer who ate 12000 calories per day. Swimming burns about 500 calories per hour, which meant that the swimmer would need to swim for over 18 hours per day, which is impossible. He wondered where all that extra energy went. Ray then realised that the swimmer spends a lot of time in the pool and that water is 24 times more thermally conductive than air. It occurred to him that the cold water was draining heat from the athlete and his body had to consume the extra calories to maintain normal body temperature.

He started his own personal research into whether his own weight loss would be affected by low temperatures. It turns out from his findings that by limiting his calorie intake like any normal diet and exposure to cold worked better than calorie restriction alone.

There is a point before we start shivering that our metabolism ramps up internal heat production to maintain our core temperature. Lowering our house or office thermostat and leaving off the layers till we feel chilled will trigger this response. Over time you can train your body to acclimatise to feeling comfortable in cooler temperatures. Turn down your shower and don't take hot baths. If you want to go to extremes, take the occasional cold bath for a boost. He does stress though that it should never be painfully cold and always protect your extremities.

He calculated that when runners complete a marathon they will have burnt an extra 2600 calories. Most of us have 2000 calories of energy on tap, stored in our muscles and liver. Once this energy has been depleted, our bodies fire up the fat burning process to free up more energy. That is a lot of running to burn up 2600 calories or 3/4 of a pound of fat. His tests showed that just immersing the body in water, significantly increased the metabolic rate and the increase lasted for  30-40 minutes after leaving the water.

If you can get used to living at 15 degrees, you can boost your metabolism by around 20%. Lose the duvet and sleep with just a sheet or PJs and the boost works out at 2800 calories for the average man and 2100 calories for the average woman. You could burn up more calories than a marathon runner and save money on your heating bill at the same time.

Ray says that if you slowly ease yourself into the lower temperatures, your body will adapt very quickly and people can live very comfortably at lower temperatures once they have acclimatised.