Need a little assistance losing those last few pounds? Need a new wellness regime? Maybe it’s time to turn down the thermostat. Several studies have found that keeping indoor temperatures cooler – in the mid to lower 60s – helps people lose weight.
In the Netherlands, men were placed in a 62-degree Fahrenheit (F) room for 10 days. Over time, the men developed more “brown fat.” Brown fat is a healthy fat – it’s what your body uses for energy. Increasing brown fat helped the men keep warm and lose weight.
White fat stores extra calories for that “someday” when you are literally starving and might need to live off your fat surplus. Brown fat uses every calorie it can find to generate energy – including energy stored in white fat supplies – to keep a body warm in a chilly room.
In a six-week Japanese study, people were placed in a room that was set to almost 63 degrees F for only two hours a day. After that the temperature was lowered to 59 degrees F. Over time, participants stopped shivering – and lost weight – as their fat stores adapted to provide enough energy to keep them warm.
When you shiver, you use more calories than you do when sitting comfortably on the couch. Makes sense, right? And, constant exposure to colder temperatures causes your body to develop more of the healthy fat that helps keep you warm (brown fat) as it adapts to the new, chillier environment – an adaptation that might have lasting effects on your metabolism. That’s micro-evolution at its finest!
Does this mean you should join a local polar bear swim club? There’s no good evidence that a plunge into frigid water or a roll in the snow (dressed in anything less than a thermal snowsuit) is good for your long-term health. And if you have a personal or family history of stroke, high blood pressure, heart attack, or other health issues you should check with your doctor before shocking your body in this manner.
So why are scientists at UT Southwestern Medical Center, Joslin Diabetes Center, and researcher centers around the world, studying brown fat? Brown fat could be the next treatment for obesity and type 2 diabetes. Researchers hope to find a way to coax adult bodies to produce brown fat to both control weight and improve the metabolism of blood sugar (glucose).
If you want to bump the thermostat down a few degrees, go for it. You might just shiver away a pound or two! But, don’t rely on a cool office alone to attain a slim physique. The best approach to weight loss remains the tried and true combination: move more and eat better.
Sources:
Trends in Endocrinology & Metabolism. 2014.
Joslin Diabetes Center. 2009 and 2013.
UT Southwestern University. 2013.
