We’ve already written an article on how to lose weight by ice bathing and how much fat you can burn. But the more exciting question is what exactly happens. On the one hand, fat is burned. On the other hand, ice bathing creates “good” fat, which actually helps to burn the bad fat.
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The three types of fat – white, brown, beige
First of all, we need to look at the different types of fat. Because not all fats are the same! There are three different types of fat: white, brown and beige fat. White fat is the worst because it promotes inflammation and increases the risk of cardiovascular disease, arteriosclerosis, diabetes, thrombosis, heart attacks, strokes and much more. In addition, white fat promotes obesity, as the fat accumulates like a deposit in the usual parts of the body and is usually not so easy to get rid of. Depending on genetic disposition, white fat is either found in the middle of the body, i.e. mostly on the stomach and buttocks (apple type – android fat distribution), or evenly distributed over the body (pear type – gynoid fat distribution), with the main storage areas for the pear type being the hips and thighs. It has been scientifically proven that the apple type with fat distribution on the abdomen is particularly at risk of diabetes and cardiovascular disease. Belly fat should therefore be strictly avoided or at least tried to be reduced as much as possible.
Brown fat is the (white) fat killer
Brown adipose tissue is so called because, unlike its white counterpart, it gets its color from brown mitochondria. The brown fat cells are able to produce energy in the form of heat. In contrast to the “normal” mitochondria, the brown fat killers do not produce adenosine triphosphate (ATP – the body’s universal energy source), but instead convert sugar and fat into heat. This process is called thermogenesis. Brown fat therefore does not store energy, but actually burns it through the brown mitochondria, which are a kind of cellular power plant – your own self-sufficient heat source, so to speak.
In infants, but also in almost all newborn mammals, brown fat is found almost exclusively, as they do not yet have good thermoregulation (they can hardly keep warm by shivering, for example, as they do not yet have the muscles to do so) and also lose more heat. In adults, it was long believed that brown fat no longer exists. However, it is currently assumed that around 10% of adults still have a few grams of brown fat tissue, which is mainly located on the neck, chest and shoulders. Beige fat is a mixture of white and brown fat.
Ice bathing and targeted exposure to cold stimulates the formation of brown and beige fatty tissue
The aim is therefore to build up more brown and beige fatty tissue. But how does this work? Cold stimulation is the classic stimulus for the production of brown adipose tissue. Ice baths, shivering, cold showers all help to convert bad (white) fat into brown or beige fat. However, studies have also found that ice baths help better than cold showers because the cold stimulus is significantly higher.
In conclusion, most adults have unfortunately lost their brown fat. As a result, they have also lost the ability to warm themselves up effectively and are no longer as resistant to the effects of cold. Adults therefore drag a lot of unhealthy white fat around their bodies and organs like clothing to protect themselves like a walrus. However, it would be smarter to carry around less white fat and have the nuclear power plants ready to generate heat whenever it is needed. Another positive effect in addition to regulating body temperature is the conversion of white fat into brown fat when activated by cold. So you can lose weight and white fat by training your brown and beige fat cells through regular ice bathing.
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