# \[Calories and swimming in\] cold water **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [August 21, 2013, 7:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/calories-and-swimming-in-cold-water/666821 "2013-08-21T19:36:07Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 12\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![stosh](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e95f7d/32.png) [@stosh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/stosh)\ **Post date:** [August 21, 2013, 7:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/calories-and-swimming-in-cold-water/666821/1 "2013-08-21T19:36:07Z")
I swim for exercise and I am told that cold water burns more calories than warm water. Is this true and is there any way of calculating this ? ---
**Author:** ![aNewLeaf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ac91a4/32.png) [@aNewLeaf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aNewLeaf)\ **Post date:** [August 21, 2013, 7:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/calories-and-swimming-in-cold-water/666821/2 "2013-08-21T19:53:52Z")
You won’t burn more calories staying warm in cold water if you’re swimming and generating waste heat anyway. Cold water will be somewhat denser than warm water, but I don’t think that’s going to slow you down at all. Might actually be easier to swim in. So I really can’t think of a reason for this to be true. ---
**Author:** ![picunurse](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/7bcc69/32.png) [@picunurse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/picunurse)\ **Post date:** [August 21, 2013, 8:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/calories-and-swimming-in-cold-water/666821/3 "2013-08-21T20:04:40Z")
Not exactly. When you swim in cold water, you feel like you’ve burned more calories. You will be hungry when you get out. Once you warm up, the hunger goes away. I read a study many years ago about weight loss and different exercises. They used three groups of women in their 30s. All had about the same amount of weight to lose. They had no diet restriction. The first group rode bikes 5 miles/day. The second ran/walked 2 miles/day. The third swam about 1 mile/day. The first two groups lost about the same amt, IIRC, about 5 lbs in 3 months. The swimmers gained 2 lbs in the same time. I’ve looked for the study on-line, but can’t find it. Of course, it was25 years ago. ---
**Author:** ![Machine\_Elf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/82dd89/32.png) [@Machine\_Elf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Machine_Elf)\ **Post date:** [August 21, 2013, 8:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/calories-and-swimming-in-cold-water/666821/4 "2013-08-21T20:29:49Z")
Wired had [an interesting article back in February](http://www.wired.com/playbook/2013/02/ff-cold-weight-loss/all/) about cold temperatures - in particular, cold water temperatures for swimming - and weight loss. > [@Wired.com](#): > > Cronise got the idea back in 2008 while watching a TV program about Michael Phelps. The coverage claimed that, while training, the Olympic swimmer ate 12,000 calories a day. At the time, Cronise was on a diet of 12,000 calories per week. (He was carrying 209 pounds on his 5’9″ frame and wanted to get back down to 180.) Something didn’t add up. Even if Phelps had an exceptionally high metabolism and swam three hours a day, he still should have turned into a blob. Then it hit Cronise: Phelps was spending hours every day in water, which was sucking heat from his body. He was burning extra calories just to maintain his core temperature of 98.6. ---
**Author:** ![Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/13edae/32.png) [@Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stranger_On_A_Train)\ **Post date:** [August 21, 2013, 8:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/calories-and-swimming-in-cold-water/666821/5 "2013-08-21T20:59:25Z")
> [@Machine\_Elf](#): > > Wired had [an interesting article back in February](http://www.wired.com/playbook/2013/02/ff-cold-weight-loss/all/) about cold temperatures - in particular, cold water temperatures for swimming - and weight loss. This is just so wrong in pretty much every way. The reason Michael Phelps can (and has to) eat an enromous calorie load while training isn’t because of the extra body heat he is losing during exercise, but because by having such a high amount of lean body mass and stressing to build more muscle he is continually burning calories at a high basal metabolic rate. While 12,000 calories is pretty extreme even for an elite athelete, bodybuilders and weightlifters will often consume in excess of 6,000 calories during peak training just in order to keep up with the demands of the body to build muscle, bones, and connective tissue. The mope who is exercising in a more moderate fashion (not exceeding, say, 85% VOmax) is no going to raise his basal metabolism rate significantly unless he is doing it for hours on end. The value of exercise is not in the calories you burn while gyrating in wildly non-anatomical fashion on an elliptical trainer. (What it is “training” you to do is a good question given that no human being on the face of the Earth will ever move like that in normal locomotion.) The benefit is in controled stressing of the body and forcing it to run at a higher rate, which incidentally improves fitness, mobility, and longevity. Stranger ---
**Author:** ![Keeve](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/f07891/32.png) [@Keeve](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Keeve)\ **Post date:** [August 21, 2013, 9:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/calories-and-swimming-in-cold-water/666821/6 "2013-08-21T21:09:07Z")
I’m guessing that this thread from 2007 might be relevant: [Can you diet by eating ice?](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=440924) ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [August 22, 2013, 12:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/calories-and-swimming-in-cold-water/666821/7 "2013-08-22T00:17:26Z")
Thread title edited to better indicate subject. Colibri General Questions Moderator ---
**Author:** ![BorgHunter](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7c8e57/32.png) [@BorgHunter](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BorgHunter)\ **Post date:** [August 22, 2013, 12:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/calories-and-swimming-in-cold-water/666821/8 "2013-08-22T00:24:57Z")
> [@Machine\_Elf](#): > > Wired had [an interesting article back in February](http://www.wired.com/playbook/2013/02/ff-cold-weight-loss/all/) about cold temperatures - in particular, cold water temperatures for swimming - and weight loss. > [@Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](#): > > This is just so wrong in pretty much every way. Not least because Michael Phelps [doesn’t actually eat 12,000 kcal a day](http://content.usatoday.com/communities/gameon/post/2012/05/michael-phelps-12000-calorie-diet-just-a-myth/1). ---
**Author:** ![Surreal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/eada6e/32.png) [@Surreal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Surreal)\ **Post date:** [August 22, 2013, 3:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/calories-and-swimming-in-cold-water/666821/9 "2013-08-22T15:20:35Z")
> [@stosh](#): > > I swim for exercise and I am told that cold water burns more calories than warm water. > Is this true and is there any way of calculating this ? Exposure to even modestly cold temperatures causes your mitochondria to become more active and generate heat. Repeated exposure to cold temperatures can significantly reduce body fat mass, even in lean people. ---
**Author:** ![Surreal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/eada6e/32.png) [@Surreal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Surreal)\ **Post date:** [August 22, 2013, 4:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/calories-and-swimming-in-cold-water/666821/10 "2013-08-22T16:17:11Z")
[http://www.jci.org/articles/view/67803](http://www.jci.org/articles/view/67803) [http://www.jci.org/articles/view/68993](http://www.jci.org/articles/view/68993) > **[Minimal changes in environmental temperature result in a significant increase...](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3113548/)** > > Resting energy expenditure (EE) is a major contributor to the total EE and thus plays an important role in body weight regulation. Adaptive thermogenesis is a major component of EE in rodents, but little is known on the effects of exposure of humans... > **[Cold exposure enhances fat utilization but not non-esterified fatty acids,...](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3650516/)** > > Cold exposure modulates the use of carbohydrates (CHOs) and fat during exercise. This phenomenon has mostly been observed in controlled cycling studies, but not during walking and running when core temperature and oxygen consumption are controlled,... ---
**Author:** ![Keeve](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/f07891/32.png) [@Keeve](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Keeve)\ **Post date:** [August 22, 2013, 5:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/calories-and-swimming-in-cold-water/666821/11 "2013-08-22T17:09:34Z")
> [@BorgHunter](#): > > Not least because Michael Phelps [doesn’t actually eat 12,000 kcal a day](http://content.usatoday.com/communities/gameon/post/2012/05/michael-phelps-12000-calorie-diet-just-a-myth/1). I’m not taking sides, but it sure would have been nice to see some investigative journalism instead of a simple denial. In other words: He said, she said. Is the original reporter admitting that “It was a myth”, or does he stick by his story? Is it possible that the confusion is do to a misunderstanding, or misinterpretation, or something similar? ---
**Author:** ![Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/13edae/32.png) [@Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stranger_On_A_Train)\ **Post date:** [August 22, 2013, 8:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/calories-and-swimming-in-cold-water/666821/12 "2013-08-22T20:01:28Z")
> [@Keeve](#): > > I’m not taking sides, but it sure would have been nice to see some investigative journalism instead of a simple denial. In other words: He said, she said. Is the original reporter admitting that “It was a myth”, or does he stick by his story? Is it possible that the confusion is do to a misunderstanding, or misinterpretation, or something similar? 12000 kcal/day would be an extraordinary number of calories. As I said, bodybuilders and people weight training might consume 6000 kcal/day or more during peak training and they end up spending two or three hours a day eating. You can consume more by biasing toward fats, but your digestive system isn’t going to love you for it and it probably isn’t conducive to athletic training; you really need to maintain the proper balance of proteins and carbohydrates in order to build lean muscle most effectively. So, I don’t know whether Phelps was or was not consuming 12000 kcal/day, but he’d be spending pretty much all of his non-training time doing it. Stranger