Do Cold Showers Burn Calories and Help Weight Loss?

Some say that cold showers and other forms of cold exposure can burn fat and help you lose weight. The idea is that stepping under an icy shower will boost metabolism, increasing the amount of fat you burn throughout the day.

I’ve even seen claims that a cold shower can burn an extra 500 calories per day, which is more than a lot of people burn during a typical gym workout.

In truth, while a cold shower does have its benefits, weight loss isn’t one of them.

How many calories does a cold shower burn?

Research shows that cold exposure increases the metabolic rate by only 1-2 calories per minute, meaning that a 10 minute cold shower is going to burn somewhere in the region of 10-20 extra calories.

That’s not a lot. You’d need to spend hours in the shower for it to have any kind of meaningful impact on weight loss.

How Cold Showers Are Supposed to Burn Fat

The “cold showers burn fat” theory is based on the discovery of a special type of fat called brown adipose tissue, also known as brown fat, or BAT for short.

Making yourself cold by showering in ice-cold water or sliding into an ice bath is supposed to activate brown fat, which in turn generates heat, raises your metabolism and burns off regular fat.

The idea is that you take a cold shower for at least 30 seconds, letting the icy water run over your shoulders, neck and back. Research shows that this is the area where a lot of brown fat cells are found [1].

How Brown Fat Affects Your Metabolic Rate

Broadly speaking, there are four different types of fat tissue found in your body:

• White fat
• Brown fat
• Beige fat
• Pink fat

The primary function of brown fat is to generate heat. In fact, brown fat cells are so metabolically active that just two ounces of the stuff can burn around 500 calories per day, which is a lot more than regular adipose tissue.

The reason it’s brown is because it’s so tightly packed with mitochondria, which is where fat gets burned off.

Brown fat is normally inactive, just as long as you’re in your thermal comfort zone, which is part of the reason that it’s rarely detected and why brown fat was traditionally thought to be irrelevant in adults.

However, more recent evidence suggests that its expression in adults is far more common than previously thought, with a higher likelihood of detection in women and leaner individuals [2].

Cold Showers for Weight Loss?

Many of the articles I came across claiming that cold showers help with weight loss cited a 2008 study as solid evidence that taking cold showers can help with weight loss [3].

When I looked at the study for myself, I was expecting to find two groups of people, one who had taken a cold shower every day for a few months, and another group that had taken a hot shower. And the ones taking cold showers had lost the most weight.

The reality, however, was rather different.

Firstly, subjects in the study spent an entire day in a respiration chamber, which is a small room that allows scientists to measure energy expenditure and metabolism.

There’s a big difference between spending 24 hours in a cold room and stepping under a chilly shower for a few minutes.

On average, mild cold exposure (61 degrees F or 16 degrees C) did increase the number of calories burned. However, there were large individual differences from person to person.

In one of the subjects, there was an increase in daily energy expenditure of around 400 calories per day. In another, calorie expenditure actually dipped by 50 calories.

The average increase across all subjects was only 76 calories. This represents an increase in 24-hour energy expenditure of 2.8%.

In other words, not only is the effect a relatively small one, it seems highly variable from person to person.

You might think that the increase in energy expenditure was caused by the men moving around more to keep themselves warm. But this wasn’t the case. In fact, mild cold exposure led to a significant drop in physical activity.

Although the researchers speculate that “regular cold exposure might be beneficial in body weight regulation,” they don’t give any recommendations about how long this cold exposure should last, or how cold you actually need to get.

A follow-up study on the subject of cold exposure and fat metabolism shows that brown fat actually uses regular fat from the rest of the body to fuel itself.

This time, subjects were kept cold, but not to the point of shivering, which itself will burn calories [4].

Over a 3-hour period, their metabolic rates increased by roughly 80%, going from an average of 1.8 to 3.2 calories per minute.

In fact, the men burned an average of 250 additional calories. This was all from a few ounces of brown fat, which kept the men warm.

There was also a large variation in the amount of brown fat each subject stored, ranging from 31 to 329 milliliters. The more brown adipose tissue (BAT for short) a man had, the colder he could get before he began shivering.

Does this research offer any support for the idea that reducing the water temperature in your shower will help with weight loss?

Not really. To keep them cold, subjects in the study wore a liquid-conditioned tube suit, which had cold water poured into it.

There’s a big difference between having the whole of your body cooled for several hours and standing under a cold shower for 30 seconds.

And even then the rise in metabolism was a relatively small one, averaging 1.4 additional calories burned for each minute of cold exposure.

There’s also some debate about the extent to which BAT is present in obese and overweight individuals.

In fact, some studies show lower BAT activity in people who are overweight or obese. The figure below, taken from this New England Journal of Medicine study, shows how BAT activity declines as body fat percentage increases.

Overall, the number of calories burned tends to be blunted in obese versus lean subjects exposed to the same cold temperatures [5].

It’s possible that lean adults may require increased metabolism in brown fat for “non-shivering” thermogenesis to maintain body temperature when it gets cold.

This isn’t so much of an issue for someone who is overweight or obese. Their fat stores act as a layer of insulation to keep them warm.

Cold Exposure and Fat Loss

The research I just mentioned looked at the effect of short-term cold exposure on the metabolism.

And while this type of research is interesting, a short-term rise in metabolic rate doesn’t always add up to a greater rate of fat loss over a period of weeks and months.

Will making yourself cold help you lose fat faster?

In one study, scientists found that sleeping in a cold room (66 degrees F or 19 degrees C) for four weeks had a number of metabolic advantages, such as an increase in brown fat levels and improved insulin sensitivity [6].

However, none of the men taking part in the study actually lost any fat.

Japanese researchers report slightly more promising results. They found that six weeks of mild cold exposure (two hours per day at 17 degrees C or 63 degrees F) led to, on average, 1.5 pounds of fat being lost [7].

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. And two hours of daily cold exposure is a lot different to 30 seconds spent in a cold shower.

In addition, the men taking part in the study were not following any kind of prescribed diet or exercise program. We know very little about how regular cold exposure will affect the results of someone who is training regularly and eating a sensible diet.

Will Turning Down the Thermostat in Your House Help You Lose Weight?

As well as cold showers, I’ve also seen claims that turning down the thermostat in your house can help you lose weight.

Experts say that because we spend so much time indoors, usually in warm homes and offices, your body doesn’t need to burn as many calories to keep you warm.

Their solution? Make yourself cold.

According to one doctor, turning down the thermostat from 24 to 19 degrees Celsius has been “proven to boost brown fat activation and burn about 100 more calories every day: an annual equivalent to 20 days of fasting.”

And there is some research to support the idea.

Dutch researchers, for example, found 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 [8].

What’s more, there is research linking the rise in obesity with a parallel rise in the typical thermostat settings in US and UK homes.

So it seems to makes sense, on paper at least.

But to me, it’s one of those “sounds good in theory but doesn’t actually work” type of ideas.

Here’s why:

For one, most people don’t like feeling cold.

Turn down the thermostat in your house, and it’s probably not going to stay turned down very long.

Either that, or you’re just going to put on a warm jumper or sit under a blanket, eliminating any fat-burning benefits that turning down the thermostat might have had in the first place.

Other people you share a house with are also going to have an opinion on what the temperature should be.

Unless you have the persuasion skills of an FBI negotiator, chances are you’re not going to convince everyone who lives with you to be slightly colder than they want to be.

There’s another problem.

Being cold has been shown in various studies to have an effect on your appetite. So you might burn more calories by living in a cold house… but end up replacing them all (and more) simply because being cold makes you want to eat more than normal.

Why Being Cold Makes You Hungry

One of the big problems with exposing yourself to cold temperatures is that it tends to make you hungry.

In one study, immersing men in cold water for 20 minutes following a bout of treadmill running led to a 20% increase in calorie intake compared to a control condition [9].

Blood samples also show that cold water immersion led to changes in both leptin and ghrelin levels, two hormones that play an important role in controlling your appetite.

Here’s how the researchers sum up their findings

In summary, a short period of postexercise water immersion significantly increases ad libitum energy intake in the subsequent meal among young, trained men. This may be attributed, in part, to a tendency for lower levels of circulating leptin, together with higher active ghrelin after immersion in cold and neutral water, respectively.

University of Florida researchers report similar results [10]. They got a group of men to exercise for 45 minutes at around 75% of their max heart rate in both neutral and cold water. The men were then allowed to eat as much food as they wanted.

Calorie intake after exercise in the cold water averaged 877 calories, which was almost 50% more than for the neutral temperature.

Even out of the water, exercise in the cold (8 degrees C or 46 degrees F) stimulates post-exercise food intake to a greater extent than exercise in a neutral (20 degrees C or 68 degrees F) environment [11].

Just sleeping in a cold room (19 degrees C or 66 degrees F) for a month has been shown to increase the desire to eat and reduce satiety, which reversed when the temperature in the room was raised [12].

To quote the study authors directly:

“Because the desire to eat heightened after cold acclimation, we cannot exclude the possibility that appetite stimulation could diminish metabolic benefits of BAT recruitment if it increases caloric intake in longer-term studies.”

In other words, you might burn off extra calories by exposing yourself to cold temperatures, but end up replacing them all because the cold leaves you hungrier than normal.

Most people take a shower because they want to get rid of the dirt, grime and sweat that’s accumulated over the course of the day.

But some folks are using showers to hack their health, with claims that showering in cold water can relieve symptoms of depression, reduce inflammation, improve your mood, strengthen your immune system, improve your skin by tightening pores, as well as triggering a rush of endorphins, leaving you feeling more awake and alert.

Studies show that cold water immersion can help relieve sore muscles [13], enhance the adaptations to endurance training [14], as well as accelerate recovery during periods of intense cycling training [15].

There’s also some interesting research to show that swimming in cold water provides a variety of benefits, including a reduction in symptoms of depression, although it does pose a significant health risk for inexperienced and untrained swimmers [16].

However, there are downsides to consider.

The Downsides of Post-Training Cold Water Immersion

One of the downsides of exposing yourself to cold temperatures after training is that you may well end up hurting rather than helping muscle growth.

In one study, subjects who took a 10-minute post-training ice bath gained significantly less muscle than a group who stayed out of the water [17].

Another trial, published in the Journal of Applied Physiology, shows similar results [18]. After nearly two months of training, subjects taking a 15-minute post-training ice bath posted a significant reduction in muscle fiber growth compared to a passive recovery group.

Ice baths appear to reduce the strength of various muscle-building signals sent to your muscles in the hours after training.

Muscle protein synthesis – a key driving force behind muscle growth – is reduced, while the rate of protein breakdown is increased The net effect is a slowdown in the rate at which muscle is gained.

To be clear, I’m not suggesting that a cold shower after training is going to have an adverse effect on your gains. A minute or two in a cold shower is a long way from spending 10 or 15 minutes in an ice bath, which means it’s far less likely to produce similar results.

Frequently Asked Questions

Are cold showers better for weight loss?

Cold exposure does have a small effect on fat burning and metabolism. However, the effects of a cold shower are minimal, and the general idea that cold exposure has a big impact on weight loss is based on some very flimsy evidence.

Do hot or cold showers burn more fat?

If you’re wondering whether hot or cold showers burn more fat, you’re focusing on the wrong thing. The contribution that any kind of shower makes to weight loss, be it a hot or a cold one, is extremely small, and not worth worrying about.