Deliberate Cold Exposure - How it Helps With Weight Loss and Metabolism

Ice Baths For Weight Loss and Metabolism

Ice baths, cold plunge, wild swimming and cold showers are all the rage in 2024. Theres a huge focus on the benefits of cold therapy for recovery protocols following exercise for athletic recovery and now many people are taking ice baths for the emerging benefits like mood support, weight loss, brain health and chronic pain management.

The science behind how cold water exposure can help with promoting weight loss or fat loss is centred around how it can improve overall metabolic health. While the vast majority who have a regular cold plunge practice are doing so to recover from training or competitive sport, the truth is they are also achieving the bonus benefits of improved metabolic efficiency and body composition in the process.

This growing pool of evidence that a regular ice bath routine, or even daily cold showers, can promote weight loss is thanks to a very interesting mechanism relating to brown fat production and mitochondrial thermogenesis. Basically, exposing the body to the cold, in an ice bath can stimulate brown fat, or brown adipose tissue (BAT), that can offer increased energy expenditure and a more efficient metabolism.

Read Also: DIY Chest Freezer Ice Bath - Is It Worth The Risk?

The Science of a Cold Plunge

Almost everyone has experienced the symptom of being cold - shivering. Scientists have a pretty good understanding now about how exposure to cold affects the human body, particularly regarding metabolism and weight loss. When exposed to cold environments, we rely on an increased thermogenic rate to offset the change in temperature or environment, part of our constant fight to return to homeostasis and maintain a stable core body temperature.

In order to combat the cold, the body has a couple of mechanisms that help it to maintain or return to the normal body temperature: shivering thermogenesis and non-shivering thermogenesis.

One of the interesting ingredients in our ability or efficiency in non-shivering thermogenesis is brown fat, or brown adipose tissue (BAT), which has had a lot of exposure recently.

The likes of cold guru Wim Hof, biohacker Tim Ferriss, neurobiology professor Andrew Huberman, Dr. Rhonda Patrick and metabolic scientist Susanna Soeberg, have all promoted its importance in the process of exposing the body to cold water, noting that increased exposure to this hormetic stressor through deliberate cold plunge increases brown fat levels which plays a large role in fat loss and body composition.

Shivering Thermogenesis

Almost everyone has experienced the shivering response as a result of being exposed to either cold weather or cold water from swimming, surfing or taking an ice bath for deliberate cold exposure. If you are accustomed to ice baths, you have definitely felt the effect of shivering, the tiny (or large) muscle contractions that create kinetic energy which is converted into heat.

Many people experience these shivering muscle contractions long after the cold plunge session has finished and the body continues to try to return the normal core body temperature. This process of allowing the body to naturally return to its normal temperature without adding any source of warmth like sauna or hot showers, is actually a very beneficial and important mechanism, coined the Soeberg Principle, after the metabolic Scientist Susanna Soerberg. 

Soeberg suggests that one of the best ways to improve your metabolic health and boost the brown fat producing qualities of ice bathing is to “always finish your contrast therapy sessions with cold” and to open up the body, allowing the body to reheat itself naturally without clothing, hot water and any external heat.  

Non-Shivering Thermogenesis 

Another way that cold exposure affects metabolic health is through non-shivering thermogenesis. Non-shivering thermogenesis is a process that generates heat in the absence of shivering.

A major tissue responsible for non-shivering thermogenesis is brown fat, which produces heat when activated. This increased mitochondrial activity and boost in brown fat levels, has been shown to increase energy expenditure and is what gives cold exposure its benefits for metabolic health and weight loss.

Brown Fat Production

We have two types of fat cells: brown and white adipocytes. In white fat (WAT), there is less mitochondria. In brown fat (BAT), there is more mitochondria. The primary function of brown fat is heat production. Brown fat is activated my norepinephrine. It has been shown that cold exposure increases levels of brown fat and even the ‘beige-ing’ of white fat cells, as described by Dr. Rhonda Patrick in a recent podcast and on her cold exposure therapy article on FoundMyFitness.

“A study in which healthy young men were exposed to cold for two hours a day for 20 days found that brown fat volume increased 45 percent and cold-induced total brown fat oxidative metabolism increased more than twofold”.

Among participants involved in another study, 2 hours daily of exposure to a 17 degree C ice bath for 6 weeks produced cold thermogenesis increases of 58 percent and fat mass loss of 1.5 pounds (0.7kg). It is true that people with higher body fat percentage have less brown fat, but exposure to cold water through ice baths, cold plunge, and to a lesser degree, cryotherapy, can help boost brown fat production and boost metabolic health. 

By taking a regular ice bath or cold plunge in icy body of water, you encourage the activation of brown fat each time, although the effects of ‘cold shock’ have been shown to diminish over repeated exposure. After a good couple of weeks of regular cold therapy, I definitely notice both the reduction in the breathless feeling from cold exposure, increased tolerance in progressively lower temperatures while simultaneously noticing reduced body fat.  

This activation of brown fat upon cold exposure may also have positive implications for those with insulin resistance and diet induced obesity. When you hop in an ice bath, the production of norepinephrine in the brain, while having the benefit of boosting mental health and mood, may also be responsible for regulating metabolism and helping to improve glucose and insulin sensitivity, increase fat utilisation, and protect against diet-induced obesity. 

The Soeberg Principle

Listen to Dr. Susanna Soeberg discuss deliberate cold exposure for metabolic health

Although it is tempting to try to warm up straight away after an ice bath by following with a hot bath, spa or hot shower, you might be missing out on some of the residual effects of cold exposure on metabolism.

Recent discussions and research around the benefits of ice baths for weight loss and metabolic effects have come from a Doctor named Susanna Soeberg. Information that has come out of this research has been coined - The Søeberg Principle. The Soeberg principal states that to gain the maximal benefits of cold exposure, you should force your body to reheat on its own and return to the natural resting temperature without the very tempting help of warm water or warm clothing. 

This cold plunge ‘hot tip’ of finishing with cold, when talking about contrast therapy where you cycle through periods of deliberate cold exposure and deliberate heat exposure, is a way to dramatically enhance the amazing metabolic effects of cold therapy. For best practice, open the body up after leaving the ice bath and let yourself drip dry for as long as reasonably possible.

Conclusion on Cold Plunge For Weight Loss

Exposure to cold temperatures has been proven to convert white fat cells to brown fat cells, burning fat and increasing metabolism 350% to increase core body temperature. Multiple studies link regular cold exposure via ice baths, cold plunge or cryotherapy to improved metabolic health and even applications for weight loss.

It is reasonable to conclude that you could use ice baths for weight loss and improving metabolic health. There is much evidence about so many benefits of ice baths and whether you are using ice baths primarily for exercise recovery or for mood and resilience effects, you can now add fat loss to the list of reasons to use cold therapy regularly.

As always, it is extremely important to use ice baths with caution and take exposure to extreme cold temperatures with an element of safety. We recommend doing cold exposure in a controlled and safe environment where you can safely rewarm the body and to always cold plunge with a partner. Please share your experience with cold plunge with us and any additional relevant information on this topic!