Credits: Social Media
Cold showers can help with weight loss and ‘strip fat’ from your body
Ice baths and cold plunges are all the rage on social media right now, but all you really need is a normal bathroom shower.
A human biologist has gone viral on TikTok after explaining the benefits of taking cold showers and one of them involves weight loss.
Cold showers help ‘strip fat’
In the video, Gary Brecka said that cold showers activate brown fat, which breaks down blood sugar and fat molecules to create heat and help maintain body temperature.
He went on to explain how calories work, saying a calorie, which is what our food and drink is measured in, is actually “a definition of a measure of heat”.
“So if calories are a measure of heat, then when heat is leaving our bodies, we can say that calories are leaving our bodies.”
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He then claimed that “nothing comes close” to cold showers in terms of “stripping fat off your body” – aka losing weight.
A 2013 Harvard study found that people who spent 10 days straight in rooms cooled to 60.8 degrees significantly increased their levels of brown fat.
Other benefits of cold showers
The human biologist also claimed that cold showers will “exercise your vascular system” by causing vasospasm, which is the narrowing of the arteries caused by a contraction of blood vessels.
He said you will experience an endorphin rush too, and this “nice flood of dopamine” will elevate your mood and improve your emotional state for hours after you get out of the shower.
A 2022 report by Dr. James Mercer from the The Arctic University of Norway found that some other benefits of cold showers include:
- Boosting the immune system
- Improving circulation
- Increasing libido
- Reducing stress
- Making new friends
- Relieving depression
- Jump starting the metabolism
- Improving cardiovascular health
- Reducing pain and inflammation
How to take a cold shower
In the TikTok video, Brecka told everyone to have a shower as normal, washing your hair and lathering with hot water.
Then, right at the end you should step out of the stream of water, put the faucet on as cold as it will go and let the water run for a while.
When it has got really cold, you need to take a deep breath and step under the flowing water as you exhale.
He said you should start by standing under the freezing stream for 30 seconds and work your way up to three minutes.
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