To Lose Weight, Chill Out
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Heymo Vehse/Thinkstock(NEW YORK) — Think keeping your room at 80 degrees will help you sweat out the fat?
Think the opposite of that and you just might shed some pounds.
Dutch researchers studying the body’s reactions to indoor conditions discovered that more energy is spent when exposed to “mild cold.”
In that way, says lead author Wouter van Marken Lichtenbelt, we burn off more calories.
Of course, lowering room temperatures to 64-66 degrees in some parts of the chilly U.S. might seem unconscionable but the Dutch team is convinced their theory works based on the production of brown adipose tissue (brown fat) in adults, which they say generates heat and burns calories.
Their study showed that participants who endured temperatures of 64-68 degrees for six hours daily for 10 days produced more brown fat that those who stayed in warmer rooms.
Another advantage is that it helps people feel less cold when the temperature dips below 60.
The participants also felt more comfortable and shivered less in 59-degree temperatures.
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