Study Finds Exposure to Cold Temperatures Can Help Lose Weight in Healthy and Sustainable manner

If you want to lose weight in a healthy manner, expose yourself to mild cold. In other words, exposure to mild cold is a healthy and sustainable way to lose weight, according  to a new research published in Trends in Endocrinology & Metabolism datelined January 22nd. The flip side of this finding is that your warm and cozy home and offices could be partly responsible for expanding waistlines.  

"Since most of us are exposed to indoor conditions 90 percent of the time, it is worth exploring health aspects of ambient temperatures," said first author of the article Wouter van Marken Lichtenbelt of Maastricht University Medical Center in The Netherlands. "What would it mean if we let our bodies work again to control body temperature? We hypothesize that the thermal environment affects human health and more specifically that frequent mild cold exposure can significantly affect our energy expenditure over sustained time periods."

The researchers Marken Lichtenbelt and his colleagues began this study about 10 years ago, because the effects of mild cold had not received attention. Earlier studies on temperature focused attention on the extreme impacts of application relevant to the military, fire fighters and others. However, the studies began to show that people responded differently and often in a big way to mild cold conditions. So, the researchers stumbled on an important discovery that heat-generating, calorie-burning brown fat isn't just for babies. Adults have it too and some more than others.

According to Marken Lichtenbelt, they now have evidence to suggest that a more variable indoor temperature – one that is allowed to drift along with temperatures outside – might be beneficial, although long-term effects still await further investigation. 

A research group from Japan found a decrease in body fat after people spent 2 hours per day at 17 degrees Celsius (62.6 degrees F) for six weeks. The Netherlands team also found that people get used to the cold over time. After six hours a day in the cold for a period of 10 days, people in their study increased brown fat, felt more comfortable and shivered less at 15 degree Celsius (59 degrees F).

In young and middle-aged people at least, non-shivering heat production can account for a few percent up to 30 percent of the body's energy budget, they say. That means lower temperatures can significantly affect the amount of energy a person expends overall.

So perhaps, in addition to our exercise training, we need to train ourselves to spend more time in the cold. Managing that in practice might take some convincing, however.

"Indoor temperature in most buildings is regulated to minimize the percentage of people dissatisfied," the researchers write. "This results in relatively high indoor temperatures in wintertime. This is evident in offices, in dwellings and is most pronounced in care centers and hospitals. By lack of exposure to a varied ambient temperature, whole populations may be prone to develop diseases like obesity. In addition, people become vulnerable to sudden changes in ambient temperature."