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  • 6/4/2014

Mild cold can help body burn more calories

mild cold can help body burn more calories

A research carried out by Dutch scientists into the effects of lower temperatures on human beings’ metabolism suggests that feeling cold could help people lose weight.

The findings of the 10-year-long study by the researchers from Maastricht University Medical Center in the Netherlands indicated that a more variable indoor temperature that more closely mirrors temperatures outside could affect people’s weights.

According to the study, non-shivering heat the body produces in response to feeling cold could account for up to 30 percent of a person’s energy budget, therefore, a mild cold is capable of considerably increasing the number of calories burned up instead of being stored as fat.

“Since most of us are exposed to indoor conditions 90 percent of the time, it is worth exploring health aspects of ambient temperatures,”‌ said lead researcher Wouter van Marken Lichtenbelt.

“What would it mean if we let our bodies work again to control body temperature?”‌ he added.

Lichtenbelt further said the research hypothesizes that frequent mild cold exposure can significantly “affect our energy expenditure over sustained time periods.”‌

The researchers discovered that people got used to the cold over time and after six hours a day in the cold for a period of 10 days, levels of heat-generating brown fat in the body boosted and people became more comfortable and quivered less.

“Indoor temperature in most buildings is regulated to minimize the percentage of people dissatisfied. This results in relatively high indoor temperatures in wintertime,”‌ said the research which was published in the journal Trends in Endocrinology & Metabolism on Wednesday.

“This is evident in offices, in dwellings and is most pronounced in care centers and hospitals. By lack of exposure to a varied ambient temperature, whole populations may be prone to develop diseases like obesity. In addition, people become vulnerable to sudden changes in ambient temperature,”‌ it added.        

Source: presstv.com               

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