Can cold showers, winter plunges, and brisk walks in the chilly outdoors provide some of the same benefits as intense exercise—including weight loss and increased energy levels? Such a link has been suspected, because cold exposure is known to convert metabolically docile white adipose tissue (WAT) into metabolically active brown adipose tissue (BAT). This “brown fat” helps you stay warmer and burn more energy. But now there is some evidence that cold exposure doesn’t merely help you turn up your inner furnace, and burn off a little fat in the short term. It may actually lower your body’s weight set point by activating a hormone that is also released during intense exercise.
That hormone is irisin (pronounced “EYE-rissin”), a cytokine produced in skeletal muscle. From the initial evidence, irisin and its partner hormone FGF21 may provide lasting benefits by boosting your metabolism and inducing you to shed excess pounds.
Brown fat. BAT, or brown fat, is a very different kind of fat than WAT, or white fat. The mitochondria in BAT cells can quickly turn calories into heat. They do that by using the protein thermogenin (also called uncoupling protein 1 or UCP1) to bypass the normal efficient conversion of glucose or fatty acids into ATP, our energy storage medium, via oxidative phosphorylation. Instead, thermogenin “wastefully” oxidizes fatty acids to generate more heat, with minimal conversion to ATP. It’s like using gas to power a cheap camp stove instead of a highly fuel efficient automobile. While this seems quite “wasteful” if you are trying to conserve energy in times of food scarcity, it’s actually quite effective if your goal is generating heat to stay warm, trying to shed extra pounds, or trying to avoid accumulating them in the first place. BAT is activated after cold exposure, and is beneficial for weight management because it can increase resting metabolic rate by up to 20%. As if that weren’t praise enough, brown fat it has been reported to have several additional health benefits, including reduced triglyceride levels, reduced incidence of fatty liver, and increased bone mineral density.
Muscle contraction, shivering and exercise. Gretchen Reynolds, in a recent New York Times article, “Shivering as a form of exercise“, highlighted a just-published study in Cell Metabolism by Paul Lee and coworkers at NIH, demonstrating that vigorous exercise and exposure to the cold each activate production of a singular hormone — irisin — by a common mechanism. Discovered only in 2012, irisin is a special type of hormone known as a cytokine, and because it is produced by muscle it is classified as a myokine. As Lee et al explain,
Irisin is an exercise-induced myokine that is secreted into the circulation following proteolytic cleavage from its cellular form, fibronectin-type II domain-containing 5 (FNDC5). It reverses diet-induced obesity and diabetes by stimulating thermogenesis in rodents through increasing brown adipocyte-like cell abundance within white fat.
In the NIH study, experimental subjects who cycled at 65 degrees F until exhaustion saw their blood levels of irisin surge higher. Remarkably, subjects who rested at 50 degrees F for 30 minutes had irisin levels equally high as the exercisers — but with no physical activity other than shivering! And the amount of irisin secreted was proportional to the amount of exercise or shivering. The researchers concluded that muscle contraction is the common mechanism causing release of irisin in exercise and shivering. They hypothesize that shivering — the rapid contraction of muscle — evolved as an early means of generating warmth, so that irisin secretion is as an inherent product of muscle contraction, whether from cold exposure or from exercise.
Cold adaptation. Through irisin, shivering induces a basic type of cold-induced thermogenesis, called shivering thermogenesis or ST. The researchers found that ST is necessary to make muscles secrete irisin, causing the formation of brown fat. However, as brown fat accumulates, a second type of cold-induced thermogenesis kicks in, called non-shivering thermogenesis or NST. And non-shivering thermogenesis activates another hormone called fibroblast growth factor 21 or FGF21. (A boring and much less evocative name than irisin!). Because FGF21 is produced in brown fat, it is known as an adipokine. The more brown fat accumulates, the more non-shivering thermogenesis becomes the dominant response to cold exposure.
So basically, this is the way you adapt to the cold: at first you need to get cold enough to shiver so that your muscles produce irisin, which increases brown fat. And as brown fat accumulates, you no longer need to shiver as much because mere cold exposure produces FGF21, which reinforces brown fat accumulation. The good news is that once you are adapted, you no longer have to shiver to get the benefits of cold exposure, because FGF21 acts to sustain brown fat accumulation and its metabolic benefits. This is consistent with what I myself experience since I started taking cold showers years ago. The cold water induces a delightful warming effect–without shivering, unless the water is particularly frigid.
The systemic effect of cold exposure, leading to hormone-regulated adaptations, is classic example of hormesis!
Other routes to cold adaptation? If the researchers are right, high intensity exercise, or anything that induces strong muscle contractions, should provide an alternative way to build up brown fat and become more cold adapted. That might include activities such as yoga or isometric exercises involving static tensing and relaxing of muscles. I don’t know whether this is true or not, but the theory would seem to predict it. So I’d be interested in any research or anecdotal experience that either supports or goes against this prediction.
Can irisin and FGF21 change your set point? Could ingestion or direct administration of irisin provide an effective weight loss remedy? in 2012, Bruce Spiegelman and others at the Dana-Farber insitute reported that direct injection of irisin into mice increased BAT levels and induced weight loss. After 10 days of administration to obese “diabetic” mice, blood sugar and insulin levels were normalized, and no adverse effects were observed. Furthermore, the human and mouse forms of irisin are identical. Whether or not this could lead to effective weight loss therapy, the experimental observations provide additional support for the role that irisin plays in regulating energy metabolism.
Weight loss and improved metabolism though increased BAT-induced thermogenesis sounds great. But wouldn’t our brain and metabolism try to resist such changes by homeostatically defending a “set point” weight? How do we know that homeostatic processes won’t compensate for the increased rate of thermogenesis by increasing appetite and by reducing the desire to exercise or otherwise slowing down the metabolism. We are all too familiar with dietary and exercise interventions that work in the short term, but fizzle or even backfire in the long term.
Body weight — actually body fat mass — is controlled centrally by the hypothalamus, the brain’s thermostat. The hypothalamus controls energy balance and fat mass by sensing and integrating incoming signals from energy molecules (glucose, fatty acids, ketones), hormones (leptin, insulin) and gut peptides (ghrelin, CKK, etc). Some have argued that each of us has a fixed “set point” weight, a natural weight that our body defends. It is argued that we can deviate from our set point weight in the short term, but we will eventually and inevitably return to that set point . Others have gone further to point out that attempts to evade this reality by crash diet and exercise programs often backfire, resulting in an actual increase of the set point. Seems like you can’t win for trying.
However, as I’ve argued in previous posts here and here, you can successfully lower your hypothalamic body fat set point. The key is to understand how certain dietary substances block access to the hypothalamus or inflame key receptors located there and, conversely, how intermittent intense exercise and other practices can enhance hypothalmic sensitivity, driving weight loss and improved energy levels.
I’ve long suspected that cold exposure could be one of those triggers that helps normalize hypothalmic sensitivity, but I didn’t have any direct evidence. And now it appears that irisin and its partner FGF21 may be mediators of this process.
A 2013 article by Piya et al in Endocrine Abstracts, describes evidence for Irisin as a central regulator in energy homeostasis. The authors identified irisin in human cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) and found that brain levels of irisin were significantly lower in obese pregnant women than in their lean counterparts. In addition, the authors found irisin is present in the paraventricular nucleous of the hypothalamus — present at the same locations as neuropeptide Y (NPY) a neurotransmitter that binds receptor neurons in the arcuate nucleous of the hypothalamus, increasing appetite and slowing energy metabolism. The suggestion here is that irisin could be acting to inhibit NPY receptors, thereby reducing appetite and increasing metabolism, Similarly, Sarruf et al. demonstrated that FGF21 acts on the hypothalamus to regulate energy, appetite and body composition. Their 2010 study, published in the journal Diabetes, showed that administration of FGF21 directly into the brains of rats significantly increased metabolic rate and insulin sensitivity, and reduced body fat.
The net effect, if the evidence holds up, is that elevated levels of irisin and FGF21 in the brain turn down the body mass “set point”.
Caveats. While what we’ve learned about irisin is promising, it should be noted that this is cutting edge science. It’s early days, and the precise role that irisin plays is not fully understood. It could be a major player or — as Peter Attia (whom I respect) suggests — a relatively minor one. We’ve seen hopes raised and dashed before for “obesity hormones” before. Injectable leptin was once proposed a panacea for obesity, until the early trials disappointed. The roles played by leptin resistance and regulation are now better understood. Similarly, we don’t know much about irisin receptors and sensitivity or resistance to the hormone. And even if irisin does regulate energy metabolism, it is not the only actor. Both central and peripheral regulation of weight and energy respond to multiple, often competing, sensory inputs. Eating a highly insulinogenic or inflammatory diet, or leading a sedentary lifestyle will counteract the beneficial effects of a single effector like irisin. So cold showers and brisk walks won’t do you much good if you eat poorly and don’t get off your duff. On the other hand, you might find — as I have — that cold showers help start your day by boosting your energy and tamping down your appetite.
Caveats aside, the discovery of irisin and its role in energy metabolism is a lead worthy of fuller investigation — both for its theoretical and practical value.
So try a cold shower! Or at least take advantage of the wintry weather, and energize yourself with a brisk stroll outdoors.
P.S. I would like to thank my brother Bruce for bringing the Reynolds article to my attention.
Quite interesting, especially the idea that getting under cold water has these hormonal effects, and can lead to long term weight loss. Any idea how cold the water needs to be?
Good question, Jon. There are different views on how cold to go, but this excellent study by Canon and Nedergaard, in both mice and humans, found thermogenesis is activated only below about 27 degrees C (80 F), and increases dramatically the colder you go.
http://bit.ly/1hx6mlW
See especially Figures 3-7: Basal metabolic rate doubles at 15 C (60 F) and triples at 5 C (40 F). The study also found increased brown fat and protection against weight gain after exposure to lower temperatures below 27 C.
My short answer is: Go as cold as you can tolerate it, and gradually lower the temperatures further as you adapt. Many of us who’ve done it find that adaptation occurs after only a few days of cold showers.
Cold enough to shiver.
Hi Todd,
I followed your prior posts on this topic, and even tried cold baths for awhile. At the time I lived in VA and water temps were around 70 degrees, so the ice needs quickly grew tiresome, and showers weren’t an option at those water temps. I now live in MI and currently have 42 degree (F) tap water so I am interested in trying this again. Now my tub is too small to soak in, so I am looking at showers this time around.
It sounds like the shower needs to induce shivering at least in the early phase in order to increase irisin and brown fat. Is this true? I showered for about 5-6 minutes in the mid 50’s the past two days, but did not shiver, just felt refreshed. Do I need to stay long enough to shiver? I will work up to longer showers and maybe slightly colder temps, but I don’t know if the lack of shivering will hamper my efforts.
Hi Rodney,
Your question is a good one. I can’t answer with certainty, but I’m relying here on my interpretation of the evidence laid out in the article by Lee et al, which is hyperlinked above. According to their findings, shivering (or intense exercise) is required to produce irisin and induce the formation of brown fat if you don’t already have brown fat in the first place. But if you already have brown (and hence are cold adapted) you don’t need to shiver to maintain brown fat and reap its benefits. Exercise (or perhaps even genetic predisposition) is an alternative way to accumulate to brown fat, without cold exposure. The NIH paper indicates that once you have brown fat, you can experience non-shivering thermogenesis (NST), which reinforces the persistence of brown fat via production of the adipokine FGF21. It appears that both FGF21 and irisin are beneficial in energy regulation.
The implication here is that shivering is necessary only if you are deficient in brown fat in the first place. But once you have brown fat, either through cold exposure or exercise, shivering isn’t necessary. Even without shivering, cold showers or other exposure will help sustain your brown fat. I can’t tell you how much brown fat you have, but the fact that you don’t shiver suggests you might already be fairly cold adapted.
Enjoy the refreshment as an end in itself! And who knows, you might even derive benefits such as enhanced energy, reduced appetite and an easier time getting or staying lean. 🙂
Todd
Hi Todd,
I’ve been taking cold showers since September 2013. I noticed significant increase in hair loss (especially in winter day when the water is very cold). I’ve recently heard that cold water isn’t a good idea for hair (I believe it’s skin-related not hormone-related, if yes). Do you think hair loss and and cold showers might be related?
Marcin,
I’m not aware of any connection between cold water and hair loss. Anecdotally, some people have found just the opposite to be the case, namely that cold water prevents or stops hair loss:
http://www.worldhairloss.org/index.php/forums/viewthread/739
http://www.ineedmotivation.com/blog/2008/04/4-reasons-why-you-need-to-take-cold-showers/
But I haven’t come across any definitive studies either way.
Hi, Todd! The website is great – lot of great thoughts on here.
My question: Started the cold showers last summer, and I don’t think I’ll ever stop. I do have one concern, and this may just be an irrational worry, but sometimes after washing all out all the shampoo, my head feels like it has essentially been “numbed,” and it briefly hurts. Is this dangerous? I would hate to be developing some kind of tumor.
Keep up the good work!
Austin
Austin,
I wouldn’t worry about it. I sometimes get “brain freeze” — the same feeling as you get in your nose from eating ice cream too fast — when I immerse my head in a very cold shower. And numbness can happen too. But the fact that your numbness is brief and reverses when you step out of the shower is completely normal.
Todd
Drinking cold water makes my whole body heat up for a few minutes, even to the point of sweating. Could this be related to the brown fat? (As an aside, I’m chronically underweight and underfat, <3% fat, BMI of 18.9, so weight loss is NOT a goal.) Could this take the place of cold showers (which, due to my total lack of insulation) are very difficult for me?
Here’s a couple of cold shower items:
Like ducks to water in the snow – keeping kids healthy Siberian style
http://siberiantimes.com/healthandlifestyle/others/news/like-ducks-to-water-in-the-snow-keeping-kids-healthy-siberian-style/
Cold Shower Therapy: Joel Runyon at TEDxLUC
Yep…I had linked to the same article on my Facebook page! Scroll to the January 4 post:
https://www.facebook.com/gettingstrongerblog
Hi Todd – I am looking for some guidance on how to adapt correctly to cold showers. After two days of taking 3-5 minute long cold showers twice a day, I got sick with a terrible cold. What’s worse is that I loved the cold showers because of how invigorating they felt and didn’t think the cold water was too much of a pain for the amazing feeling afterwards. So now, having to take downtime to recover from one of the most severe colds I’ve ever had, I feel discouraged and unsure about the correct way to restart once recovered. What’s your advice? Thanks in advance for your thoughts.
Sorry to hear about your cold, Elizabeth. Probably 2 cold showers a day was overdoing it for you. My advice is to go back to warm or lukewarm showers until you kick your cold, then try shorter cold showers — every other day at first, then every day. Be sure you are getting enough sleep and eating well too.
Hi, Todd,
I was wondering what your thoughts were on Contrast Showers—going from hot to cold multiple times in one shower. Is it possible that the increased temp range would increase our body’s reaction or even allow us to induce shivering without ice?
Also, any personal experience using CSs to prevent soreness or improve gains after workout?
Thanks for the blog—-clearly a lot of time and effort goes into it and it definitely shows. Really appreciate your take on ask these topics.
Brian,
Contrast baths or showers are purported to have benefits for improving circulation and reducing soreness. And as I’ve commented above and on the forum, they will increase tolerance to extremes of temperature. So by all means take them if you want.
But the benefits of sustained cold exposure are unique and cannot be achieved by rapid shifting from hot to cold. Thermogenesis takes time to kick in, as does the induction of irisin, brown fat and other metabolic effectors. Continued and increased exposure will also provide anti-depressant effects than cannot be achieved by contrast showers.
Todd
A couple of recent studies have cast serious doubts on the idea of taking cold showers after exercise. According to these studies, cold water immersion after exercise had a significant effect on *decreasing* muscle and strength gains that might otherwise accrue after resistance training. See: http://bretcontreras.com/you-got-gurud-postexercise-cold-water-immersion/
This casts serious doubts on my usual contrast shower after exercising strategy. While we don’t know what the effect of contrast showers would be, the evidence against cold water after exercise looks fairly strong from these studies.
Joshua,
I’m actually not surprised to learn that extensive cold water immersion AFTER exercise would diminish athletic gains such as muscle hypertrophy (growth) or strength. Cold water has an anti-inflammatory effect, which is why it can help with immediate soreness. But as I’ve mentioned elsewhere in the blog, inflammation and oxidative stress are not “bad” forces to be avoided or countered at all costs. Oxidative stress and inflammatory markers are agents of intracellular signaling that, in moderation, can activate beneficial growth and repair processes. Inflammation and oxidative processes only become problematic when excessive, or when prolonged chronically and without the opportunity for rest and restorative repair and growth.
I personally use brief cold showers to start my day. I’ll use it to cool down after a hot workout. But, as your reference points out, it’s best not to overdo it as a post-exercise routine — especially if you are looking for gains in size and strength.
Todd
I’m sure you probably saw this, but it caught my eye today and remembered reading this blog of yours a while back..
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-3400205/Have-scientists-discovered-elixir-youth-Hormone-extends-lifespan-40-protecting-immune-against-ravages-age.html
heh. Of course they are looking to bottle it and put it in a pill or a shot as some kind of wonder drug.. They mentioned this toward the end, however: “Professor Dixit added that FGF21 is produced in the liver as an endocrine hormone.
Its levels increase when calories are restricted to allow fats to be burned when glucose levels are low.
FGF21 is a metabolic hormone that improves insulin sensitivity and also induces weight loss.”
Another reason to CR and eat a Low-carb diet 😉
Hi Kelly,
Yes, you’re right. The link you sent mentions calorie restriction (or intermittent fasting) as an inducer of FGF21, but let’s not overlook the other hormetic activators in the title of this blog: cold showers and exercise! And the reservoir that produces this adipokine: brown fat. We are not looking at a short term effect, but rather a process of building up the brown fat that secretes the FGF21 and its partner hormone, irisin.
I have to laugh about your jest that the researchers are hoping to “bottle” these hormones. Very typical of the current medical mindset. The sustainable (and inexpensive), but effortful, approach is to alter lifestyle to build up the brown fat that produces these hormones.
Todd
Todd
My roommate is a kinesiology masters student. He is Japanese. He asks me to proofread his papers for him to check his grammar.
You may be interested to know that:
if the researchers are right, high intensity exercise, or anything that induces strong muscle contractions, should provide an alternative way to build up brown fat and become more cold adapted.
Is apparently already established knowledge in Japan.
Thank you for the article.
I enjoy reading your blogs but I am puzzled by the fact that brown fat can increase resting metabolic rate. I have read that the lower your resting metabolic rate, the longer you live. What are your thougts about that?