I have read of a diet consisting of drinking LOTS of ice water. The theory is that it takes energy (calories) for your body to “bring” the consumed liquid up to your body’s temperature (or perhaps more accurately for your body to resist it’s core temp, from being depressed to much). There are of course variations such as the “catabolic” diet plan which consist of eating low calorie foods such a lettuce and celery (the theory being that these items COST more in calories to digest than they provide). I’m not aware of any studies that address the effectiveness of the above interventions. However, I have a fool proof exercise plan based on the same principals.
At Roland’s House of Cold, even the most lazy individual will burn lots of calories. That is because you will be placed in temperature controlled room in nothing, but your undies. There would be a chair, treadmill, and exercise bike along with TV and awesome sterio system (which would all be optional you could just sit in the chair). THEN, the temperature would be dropped over a period of say ten minutes until it reached about 20 degree F (cold enough to make you shiver warm enough to avoid frostbite). You would also wear some sort of vital signs monitor to ensure you were not developing hypothermia. Everyone would shiver, and thus burn calories. Many people would choose to use the treadmill either to burn more calories or just to stay a little warmer. Cheating would not be possible unless you sneaked a sleeping bag or a girlfriend! What’s the catch?
You would accomplish the same thing if you attached battery cables to your testicles and got someone to shock you every time you stopped running. And then you wouldn’t even have to drink the ice water.
The catch to drinking cold water is that it you’d have to drink a LOT of ice cold water to notice any effect.
See comments on the Master’s original column
As for the sitting in a cold room deal, I believe you would have to spend a lot of time in the room to notice a difference. Plus, your body would adapt to the cold and then you’d have to move to Minnesota…
Now if you are more comfortable using the treadmill in a cold room, then anything that gets you on the tread mill is good.
It’s true that cold conditions force you to burn more calries just to stay alive - polar explorers end up eating phenomenal loads of carbohydrates (although some of this is undoubtedly burned off by slogging across tough terrain in snowshoes, towing a sledge.
The ‘catch’ is that, like any other exercise scheme, it isn’t pleasant and therefore it wouldn’t be terribly appealing to someone who prefers to veg out in front of the telly with a large bowl of cheetos.
I think there might be some faulty reasoning there; including:
-The assumption that Eskimos feel cold a lot of the time (maybe they don’t, due to adequate clothing
-Maybe the adequate clothing makes them look rounder than they actually are
-Maybe they have to eat a very high calorie diet in order to maintain a higher BMI (to stave off the effects of the cold).
Ooops…I should have put a in my original flippant statement. Yes, I agree with the observations you’ve made dealing with Eskimos. The closest experience I’ve had with people of the frozen north is watching Klondike commercials.
in my original flippant statement. Yes, I agree with the observations you’ve made dealing with Eskimos. The closest experience I’ve had with people of the frozen north is watching Klondike commercials.