Facebook Twitter Instagram
    • Advertise with us
    • Contact Us
    • Write for Muscle Media
    Facebook Twitter Instagram YouTube
    Muscle Media online Muscle Media online
    • Our Magazine
      • Magazine Download Desktop
      • Muscle Media Magazine App Downloads
      • Apple News
    • Categories
      1. DIET & NUTRITION
      2. HEALTH & WELLNESS
      3. RELATIONSHIPS & DATING
      4. TRAINING & FITNESS
      5. View All
      raw why go raw

      Why go Raw?

      January 25, 2021
      Amino Acids in Food

      Amino Acids in Food

      November 16, 2020
      muscle Does-Whey-Protein-Build-Muscle-Muscle-Media

      Does Whey Protein Build Muscle?

      November 13, 2020
      minutes Get-Minutes-Of-Fitness-Exercise-Muscle-Media

      Get Minutes Of Fitness Exercise

      November 9, 2020
      raw why go raw

      Why go Raw?

      January 25, 2021
      arm barbell

      Arm Exercise

      January 19, 2021
      Amino Acids in Food

      Amino Acids in Food

      November 16, 2020
      muscle Does-Whey-Protein-Build-Muscle-Muscle-Media

      Does Whey Protein Build Muscle?

      November 13, 2020
      6-Tips-For-Safe-Online-Dating-Muscle-Media-Magazine

      6 Tips For Safe Online Dating

      July 2, 2019
      8-Dating-Rules-For-Single-Dads-Muscle-Media

      Single Dads, 8 Dating Rules

      May 14, 2019
      Your Digital Spring Date - Muscle Media

      Your Digital Spring Date

      April 15, 2019
      3 Things That Can Save You When You Don’t Know What To Say - Muscle Media

      3 Things That Can Save You When You Don’t Know What To Say

      April 12, 2019
      arm barbell

      Arm Exercise

      January 19, 2021
      minutes Get-Minutes-Of-Fitness-Exercise-Muscle-Media

      Get Minutes Of Fitness Exercise

      November 9, 2020
      tips 5 Super Simple Exercise Tips-Muscle Media

      5 Super Simple Exercise Tips

      September 23, 2020
      core muscle The-Importance-of-Working-Your-Core-Muscle-Muscle-Media

      The Importance of Working Your Core Muscle

      September 22, 2020
      raw why go raw

      Why go Raw?

      January 25, 2021
      arm barbell

      Arm Exercise

      January 19, 2021
      Amino Acids in Food

      Amino Acids in Food

      November 16, 2020
      muscle Does-Whey-Protein-Build-Muscle-Muscle-Media

      Does Whey Protein Build Muscle?

      November 13, 2020
    Muscle Media online Muscle Media online
    Home»TRAINING & FITNESS»Freeze Fat Away – Can You Freeze your Way to a Better Body?
    TRAINING & FITNESS

    Freeze Fat Away – Can You Freeze your Way to a Better Body?

    June 27, 2016No Comments8 Mins Read
    Facebook Twitter Pinterest WhatsApp
    Freeze Fat Away – Can You Freeze your Way to a Better Body?

    Can you freeze fat away? Ray Cronise, a former materials scientist at NASA, now spends much of his time researching the benefits of cold exposure. His interest in the subject was piqued back in 2008 when he heard that swimmer Michael Phelps was devouring a mind-boggling 12,000 calories a day. Nobody could understand how it was possible to eat so much and remain lean. Cronise concluded that Phelps must be burning extra calories simply by spending so much time training in cool water. As it turns out, the 12,000 calorie story was false. In a later interview, Phelps says that the whole thing was made up.

    “I never ate that much,” Phelps explains. “It’s all a myth. I’ve never eaten that many calories. I wish! It’s just too much though. It would be impossible.”

    iStock_92302815_XLARGE

    But that didn’t stop Cronise from experimenting on himself. He claims to have lost 27 pounds in just six weeks by taking cold showers, walking for several miles in freezing weather wearing a t-shirt and shorts, as well as sleeping without any sheets on the bed. The theory is that because your body uses energy to maintain a normal body temperature, exposure to cold burns calories, helping you drop fat faster.

    Freeze Fat underCan you freeze fat away? Should you be doing the same thing?

    Here’s a summary of what the research has to say on the subject of cold exposure, metabolism, fat loss and muscle growth.

    iStock_44426238_XLARGE

    1. Cold exposure does affect your metabolic rate.

    Exposing yourself to cold temperatures “activates” something called brown fat (also known as brown adipose tissue, or BAT for short). BAT generates heat to keep you warm, burning off calories in the process. Research shows that when room temperature drops from a warm 22 degrees C to a cool 16 degrees C, test subjects burned an average of 170 additional calories per day. In another trial, a group of healthy men were kept cold, but not quite cold enough to cause shivering, which itself will burn energy 5. Over a three-hour period, the men burned an average of 250 extra calories. This was all from a few ounces of BAT, which kept the men warm. The more BAT a man had, the colder he could get before shivering.

    2. There are large individual differences in the number of extra calories burned in response to mild cold.

    Dutch researchers found that the change in energy expenditure during mild cold exposure (16 degrees C) ranged from an increase of 396 calories to a decrease of 50 calories per day3. Overall, the number of calories burned tends to be blunted in obese versus lean subjects exposed to the same cold temperatures6. It’s possible that lean individuals need more BAT activity to maintain their body temperature when it gets cold. This isn’t so much of an issue for someone who is overweight or obese, as their fat acts as a layer of insulation to keep them warm.

    Freeze Fat Away

    3. Cold exposure affects more than just your metabolism. It can also increase your appetite.

    Immersion in cold water has been shown to make you hungrier than normal, leading to an increase in calorie intake2. Research also shows that exercise in the cold (8 degrees C) stimulates post-exercise food intake to a greater extent than exercise in a neutral (20 degrees C) environment 1. In other words, you might burn more calories by exposing yourself to cold temperatures, but end up replacing them all because the cold leaves you hungrier than normal.

    Freeze Fat under cubes

    4. Regular cold exposure has been shown to increase fat loss.

    In one of the few studies to report a change in body composition after mild cold exposure (two hours per day at 17 degrees C for six weeks) the average amount of fat lost came to just 1.5 pounds4. Which isn’t a lot. Some of the subjects got better results than everyone else, losing around four pounds of fat. Others ended up gaining weight. In addition, the men taking part in the study were not following any kind of prescribed diet or training program. We know very little about how regular cold exposure will affect fat loss in someone who is working out regularly and eating a sensible diet.

    5. Ice baths may put the brakes on muscle growth.

    There’s also some emerging research to suggest that cold exposure after training may interfere with gains in strength and size. In one study, Australian researchers took a group of 21 volunteers and got them to train their legs twice a week for a total of 12 weeks9. Half the group jumped into an ice bath for 10 minutes after their workout. The other half spent the same amount of time cycling on a stationary bike. Although both groups gained muscle, subjects who cycled for 10 minutes after training made three times greater gains in muscle mass compared with those in the ice bath group. Gains in strength were also a lot smaller in the cold water immersion group.

    Why did the ice bath put the brakes on muscular gains?

    For one, cold water immersion has the effect of reducing muscle blood flow, which could reduce the synthesis of new muscle protein. Cold water immersion also suppresses and/or delays post-training changes in satellite cell activity. Satellite cells surround your muscle fibers, and play a key role in muscle growth.

    According to the researchers, this study offers the “strongest evidence to date that using cold water immersion on a regular basis may interfere with training adaptations.”

    freeze fat cubes splashIn other words, if you want to make your muscles bigger and stronger, post-training cold water immersion is unlikely to improve, and may very well hurt, your results. That’s not to say that exposure to cold temperatures has no other benefit besides its impact on muscle growth or fat loss. There is evidence to show that cold water immersion can help reduce post-exercise muscle soreness10, enhance the adaptations to endurance training 11, as well as accelerate recovery during periods of intense training12. But all things considered, I’m not convinced that walking my dog on a cold winter morning wearing nothing but shorts and a vest is going to produce a change in body composition that is worth the discomfort involved in doing so.

     


    1. Crabtree DR, Blannin AK. (2015). Effects of exercise in the cold on ghrelin, PYY, and food intake in overweight adults. Medicine and Science in Sports and Exercise, 47, 49-57
     2. Halse RE, Wallman KE, Guelfi KJ. (2011). Postexercise water immersion increases short-term food intake in trained men. Medicine and Science in Sports and Exercise, 43, 632-638
     3. Wijers SL, Schrauwen P, Saris WH, van Marken Lichtenbelt WD. (2008). Human skeletal muscle mitochondrial uncoupling is associated with cold induced adaptive thermogenesis. PLoS One, 3, e1777
     4. Yoneshiro T, Aita S, Matsushita M, Kayahara T, Kameya T, Kawai Y, Iwanaga T, Saito M. (2013). Recruited brown adipose tissue as an antiobesity agent in humans. Journal of Clinical Investigation, 123, 3404-3408
     5. Ouellet V, Labbé SM, Blondin DP, Phoenix S, Guérin B, Haman F, Turcotte EE, Richard D, Carpentier AC. (2012). Brown adipose tissue oxidative metabolism contributes to energy expenditure during acute cold exposure in humans. Journal of Clinical Investigation, 122, 545-552
     6. van Marken Lichtenbelt WD, Schrauwen P. (2011). Implications of nonshivering thermogenesis for energy balance regulation in humans. American Journal of Physiology, 301, R285-296
     7. van der Lans AA, Hoeks J, Brans B, Vijgen GH, Visser MG, Vosselman MJ, Hansen J, Jörgensen JA, Wu J, Mottaghy FM, Schrauwen P, van Marken Lichtenbelt WD. (2013). Cold acclimation recruits human brown fat and increases nonshivering thermogenesis. Journal of Clinical Investigation, 123, 3395-3403
     8. Westerterp-Plantenga MS, van Marken Lichtenbelt WD, Strobbe H, Schrauwen P. (2002). Energy metabolism in humans at a lowered ambient temperature. European Journal of Clinical Nutrition, 56, 288-296
     9. Roberts LA, Raastad T, Markworth JF, Figueiredo VC, Egner IM, Shield A, Cameron-Smith D, Coombes JS, Peake JM2. (2015). Post-exercise cold water immersion attenuates acute anabolic signalling and long-term adaptations in muscle to strength training. Journal of Physiology, 593, 4285-4301
     10. Machado AF, Ferreira PH, Micheletti JK, de Almeida AC, Lemes R, Vanderlei FM, Netto Junior J, Pastre CM. (2016). Can water temperature and immersion time influence the effect of cold water immersion on muscle soreness? A systematic review and meta-analysis. Sports Medicine, 46, 503-514
     11. Ihsan M, Markworth JF, Watson G, Choo HC, Govus A, Pham T, Hickey A, Cameron-Smith D, Abbiss CR. (2015). Regular postexercise cooling enhances mitochondrial biogenesis through AMPK and p38 MAPK in human skeletal muscle. American Journal of Physiology, R309, 286-294
     12. Halson SL, Bartram J, West N, Stephens J, Argus CK, Driller MW, Sargent C, Lastella M, Hopkins WG, Martin DT. (2014). Does hydrotherapy help or hinder adaptation to training in competitive cyclists? Medicine and Science in Sports and Exercise, 46, 1631-1639

     

    Share. Facebook Twitter Pinterest WhatsApp
    Previous ArticleGreen Tea for Fat Loss – The Power of Polyphenols
    Next Article Mind Muscle Control for Muscle Growth… True or False?

    Related Posts

    arm barbell

    Arm Exercise

    January 19, 2021
    minutes Get-Minutes-Of-Fitness-Exercise-Muscle-Media

    Get Minutes Of Fitness Exercise

    November 9, 2020
    tips 5 Super Simple Exercise Tips-Muscle Media

    5 Super Simple Exercise Tips

    September 23, 2020
    core muscle The-Importance-of-Working-Your-Core-Muscle-Muscle-Media

    The Importance of Working Your Core Muscle

    September 22, 2020

    Leave A Reply Cancel Reply

    muscle media magazine
    recover right
    all infinite labs products
    body recovery
    infinitelabs digital
    Latest Post
    raw why go raw

    Why go Raw?

    January 25, 2021
    arm barbell

    Arm Exercise

    January 19, 2021
    Amino Acids in Food

    Amino Acids in Food

    November 16, 2020
    muscle Does-Whey-Protein-Build-Muscle-Muscle-Media

    Does Whey Protein Build Muscle?

    November 13, 2020
    knee physical therapy Knee-Physical-Therapy-Muscle-Media

    Knee Physical Therapy

    November 11, 2020
    minutes Get-Minutes-Of-Fitness-Exercise-Muscle-Media

    Get Minutes Of Fitness Exercise

    November 9, 2020
    losing weight loss rapid-weight-loss-MUSCLE-MEDIA

    Losing Weight Rapidly

    November 6, 2020
    tips 5 Super Simple Exercise Tips-Muscle Media

    5 Super Simple Exercise Tips

    September 23, 2020

    Latest Post

    raw why go raw

    Why go Raw?

    January 25, 2021
    arm barbell

    Arm Exercise

    January 19, 2021
    Amino Acids in Food

    Amino Acids in Food

    November 16, 2020
    muscle Does-Whey-Protein-Build-Muscle-Muscle-Media

    Does Whey Protein Build Muscle?

    November 13, 2020

    About Us

    © 2008 – 2018 | Built by: Infinite Labs Digital All Rights Reserved Always consult with a qualified healthcare professional prior to beginning any diet or exercise program or taking any dietary supplement. The content on our website is for informational and educational purposes only and is not intended as medical advice or to replace a relationship with a qualified healthcare professional. *These statements have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration. This product is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure or prevent any disease.

    Follow Us

    Facebook Twitter Youtube Instagram

    CATEGORIES

    • HEALTH & WELLNESS
    • TRAINING & FITNESS
    • DIET & NUTRITION
    • Lifestyle
    • Nutrition
    • DR TOM – GOT A MINUTE
    • Motivation
    • RELATIONSHIPS & DATING
    • SPORTS SUPPLEMENTS

    Available On

    amazon kindle
    apple news

    © Copyright 2021 – Muscle Media Magazine

    • Advertise with us
    • Contact Us
    • Muscle Media Magazine App Downloads
    • Privacy Policy
    • Terms of Use
    • Write for Muscle Media
    • Advertise With Us
    • Contact Us
    • Muscle Media Magazine App Downloads
    • Privacy Policy
    • Write For Muscle Media