Doesn’t it feel great to take a nice, warm shower after a long day at work? Get in, warm up and relax. Turns out that the time you spend in the shower could possibly be time spent shedding fat. Well, that is a pretty simple way of putting it. Cold Thermogenesis, as it’s called, is a way to manipulate your body’s temperature to potentially increase fat loss as well as improve athletic performance. Basically all you have to do is expose your body to cold water frequently. Seems too simple doesn’t it? Maybe…..let’s look at how Cold Thermogenesis effects your body and a couple of ways to expose yourself to the coldness.
Activate the BAT
BAT, or Brown Adipose Tissue, is a unique kind of fat that can generate heat by burning white fat (regular adipose tissue) typically found on your stomach, butt, hips and legs. BAT is found primarily around the collar bone, neck and upper back. Turns out that exposing your body to frequent bouts of cold water can increase the amount of brown adipose tissue you have to help generate heat to keep you warm, which in-turn increases the amount of white fat you can burn.
Higher Metabolism, Enhanced Immune System and Lower Blood Sugar
Cold Thermogenesis can increase your metabolism and lower your blood sugar by burning blood glucose rapidly as fuel to help in heating your body (so next time you feel like having a piece of cake, find a cold pool). At the same time, your body will be producing more immune system cells that will help fight disease. Cold Thermogenesis can increase the circulating levels of interleukin-6, a cell released by the body to help fight infection.
Pretty cool, huh? I thought so. Now, don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying the cold water will be the cure all to your problems. This is something I’ve seen brought up by professionals a few times now so I thought I’d share it with you.
Let’s look at a couple of ways we can make ourselves shiver the fat away, shall we? Feel free to try any of these, as they will all make you equally as cold.
- Take a five minute cold shower every morning (I said COLD, not kinda cold), or alternate twenty seconds of cold with ten seconds of
- Get an ice bath or five to twenty minutes once or twice a week
- Swim in cold water
These are all things that are fairly simple and can be done on a regular basis. Now, the key here is REGULAR BASIS, which is the key to success in anything. If you try this for three days and don’t see anything, don’t be surprised. Give it three or four weeks MINIMUM!
Remember, Cold Thermogenesis is not something that you should use as a cure all. Give it a try and see if it helps your fat loss or performance in any way. At the very least it’ll help you prepare for the cold winter!
Thrive Fitness 