Burn fat by wearing a cold vest?
This morning I’m drinking some ice water, listening to classical music, wearing my Cool Fat Burner vest, oh, and burning fat through a process called cold thermogenesis. Cold thermogenesis is heat production stimulated by exposure to cold. Complete with goose bumps, today I will explain why this is working.
There are different ways to achieve cold thermogenesis; wearing a cold vest is one of them. The vest I’m wearing has inserts for cold packs. I keep these in the freezer and then just slide them into pockets in the vest, place the vest on, and viola! I’m burning fat! To see me in my vest, go over to my Facebook page.
When done the right way, cold exposure has many benefits such as:
Lowering body fat
Increasing hormone levels
Lowering blood sugar
Cutting food cravings
Improving adrenal function
Fixing thyroid issues
Enhancing immune function
Improving deep sleep quality
Reducing inflammation
Nice!
Why does cold exposure achieve some of these benefits? Think BAT activation.
Brown adipose tissue (BAT) can be found around your collar bones, sternum, neck, and upper back. This type of fat can generate heat by burning the regular white fat (adipose tissue) found on your stomach, butt, hips, and legs. The cool thing about BAT is that it can immediately and directly burn white fat. Generally you would need exercise or caloric restriction to utilize fat as a fuel source (first burning glucose and then glycogen).
People (or mammals) exposed to frequent cold temperatures tend to have higher levels of brown fat to generate heat and help to keep them warm. Think of babies, all that cuteness of rolls of fat is keeping them warm. Isn’t nature grand?! Exercise and fasting can both also increase BAT but not like cold exposure!
There is much research on cold exposure. I’m going to provide you with just a taste of the science-stuff.
Adinopectin Activation
Adinopectin is a hormone released during cold exposure that breaks down fat and shuttles glucose into muscles (which can lower blood sugar). This not only has an anabolic, muscle repair effect, but can also enhance recovery. Interestingly, low adiponectin levels have been associated with obesity, diabetes, and cardiovascular disease.
Higher Metabolism & Lower Blood Sugar
Cold exposure can cause blood glucose to be burned rapidly as fuel to assist in heating the body or stored in muscles to enhance recovery or performance – before that blood sugar can potentially be converted to fat via the liver.
Enhanced Immune System
Cold therapy has been proven to enhance the immune system, primarily by increased levels of immune system cells that help fight disease and infection.
Specifically, cold exposure – likely due to it’s ability to stimulate norepinephrine release – can induce leukocytosis and granulocytosis, an increase in natural killer cell count and activity, and a rise in circulating levels of interleukin-6, all of which can massively improve your immune system integrity.
Increased Cell Longevity
mTOR is a protein found in humans. Perhaps you’ve heard that worms, fruit flies and mice live longer when exposed to caloric restriction, and it is hypothesized that this is caused by downregulation of the mTOR pathway. Inhibition of the mTOR pathway can bring about cell autophagy, which is basically how your body cleans out metabolic “junk” within the cells – and this is the method via which cells may live longer and healthier lives.
Cold exposure has an effect on cellular longevity by similar mTOR pathways as caloric restriction and intermittent fasting. Basically, you can think of it as a combination of simultaneously increasing your cell’s hardiness and health.
So back to my Cool Fat Burner vest. I will generally wear a hat, socks, and sometimes gloves while using the vest. This is because fingers, toes, ears, (and nose) have a great number of sensory nerves for cold. Think where humans first get frostbite. Those sensory nerves serve as a warning system for your body. By wearing a hat, socks, and gloves, I’m “fooling” my body; I feel warmer but still have that shivering effect. When I first used the vest I just started at 10 to 15 minutes at a time for about a week, then increased to 30+ minutes at a time. I purchased it online from CoolFatBurner.com.
I first learned about cold thermogenesis at the conference that changed my life (reference my newsletter by the same name). One of the speakers that formerly worked for NASA provided some great information. The things I’ve learned and continue to learn, I want to share with you so hopefully it will benefit you in some way.
You can check out some the studies:
journals.Cambridge.org
To your journey,
Lisa Schaffer
GreenNote Fitness
P.S. Checkout my Facebook page
