Hot Weight Loss Tip

We previously shared you can turn up the heat on your food by eating hot peppers and bell peppers to lose weight. Now, we’re turning the tables and saying you can also cool things down to lose or maintain your weight — It’s as easy as turning down the temperature on your thermostat in your home.

The reason is this: human metabolism slows down in warmer temperatures. When the temperature is 77 to 80 degrees, that’s when the body’s metabolic rate is at its lowest. In colder temperatures, however, the body works hard to warm itself, which burns calories.

Get out of the comfort zone

This reduced exposure to indoor cold may have minimized the need for higher energy expenditure for the body to stay warm, Johnson and co-authors suggested.

What researchers discovered is that since the 1960s, our norms of thermal comfort have been changed by using central heating, which can lower the body’s own internal thermostat and its ability to burn fat — and it may also contribute to widespread obesity, according to research by Fiona Johnson, MRCPsych, and colleagues at the University College London, as published in Obesity Reviews.

Cool Weight Loss Tip

The conclusion? There is a causal link between increased time spent in thermal comfort and weight gain. So if you normally keep the thermostat high during the cold months, time to turn it down. You’ll not only save on your heating bill, you could save yourself some pounds!

Actionable Weight Loss

Make an actionable weight loss plan with Dr. Oksana Aron today at Dr Aron Medical Weight Loss Center, WeightLossNYC™. Take the first step by starting today

Sources: NIH, MedPageToday (retrieved 2012), digitalart/FreeDigitalPhotos

Labels: brooklyn, new york, ny, nyc, obesity, overweight, weight gain