Can cooling vests really burn fat?

Exposure to cold, ranging from cryotherapy to ice baths, is a trend in the weight-loss world, but what if something a little less brutal could provide the same metabolism-boosting benefits through cooling vests?

The relationship between cold exposure and increased calorie burning is not exactly breaking news; the practice of bodybuilders lowering their home thermostats to boost their metabolism has been known since the early 2000s, and even then, the concept was not new.

It is accepted that cold environments significantly increase metabolism during rest and exercise. Metabolic rate can increase up to fivefold at rest during extreme cold stress because that kind of shivering generates body heat to maintain a stable core temperature.

Researchers have discovered that even small reductions in ambient temperature can help the body generate heat by encouraging it to form brown adipose tissue (BAT), and this could also be true for cooling vests.

It is a specific type of adipose tissue that helps maintain body heat by burning fat at a high rate; it is like fat that burns fat.

So, is it possible to stimulate the body to produce more of this metabolically active tissue? These recent findings have led to a wave of new studies investigating the effect of mild cold exposure on metabolism and, potentially, obesity.

Cooling vests: what does the science say?

Continued interest in cold exposure has led to the development of cooling vests; these vests are essentially holders for ice packs that, unlike ice baths, cool the body while allowing freedom of movement and participation in other activities.

The vests are supposedly relatively tolerable because they target areas of the body that are less sensitive to cold: the shoulders, chest, and upper arms. The idea is to lower body temperature, but not to the point of causing shivering. Wayne Hayes, Ph.D., a NASA scientist and inventor of the “Cold Shoulder” ice vest, states that the effect on resting metabolic rate is not immediate, as it must be used regularly for weeks to produce results.

In one study, researchers measured the effect of cold on metabolic rate using a resting energy expenditure test; this test involved a 12-hour fast, no exercise for 24 hours, and, in that state, the test subject lay in a dark room for 20 minutes with a large plastic capsule placed over their head.

• While lying there, the air they exhaled was captured by the capsule and analyzed to determine which type of macronutrient they were burning for energy at that moment.
• This information, together with the total volume of air they consumed and general information about their height, weight, sex, and age, allowed the researchers to estimate how many calories their body would burn if they remained in that position for 24 consecutive hours.

Cooling vests have a high level of tolerance when people first start using them because they allow them to perform daily tasks such as making breakfast, walking the dogs, working on the computer, etc., without causing significant discomfort. However, after a few hours, the cold begins to intensify until the body starts shivering, making it unbearable.

• The first test was conducted without the cooling vest; after 20 minutes, the results showed that, at the current metabolic rate, approximately 1,716 calories would be burned over the next 24 hours.
• The second test was conducted with the cooling vest; first for 10 minutes to allow the cold to take effect on the body before entering the plastic capsule. Then, a 20-minute session under the plastic capsule, while continuing to wear the vest, showed that approximately 1,768 calories would be burned over the next 24 hours.

The results make sense: a colder body was working harder to maintain a stable core temperature, but the size of the results was disappointing. Only another 50 calories per day, meaning the cooling vest would have to be worn all day to burn an extra 50 calories, which seems like too much time for too few calories.

However, for a bodybuilder or athlete seeking every possible advantage, wearing cooling vests is probably more comfortable and cost-effective than keeping the air conditioning very low all the time. In addition, wearing the vest would certainly be less painful than taking an ice bath. Ultimately, the cooling vest may not be a “quick fix” or a reliable weight-loss solution, but if the athlete can afford it and is willing to commit to wearing the vest for perhaps an hour twice a day, while exercising regularly, they could lose some extra weight.

Source

• The Journal of Clinical Investigation – 2013: Cold acclimation recruits human brown fat and increases nonshivering thermogenesis.