Lose Weight With Cold Plunging?

For some, weight loss is the main motivation for practicing cold plunges. For others, it’s simply a welcome side effect. Whatever your reason, immersing yourself in cold water forces your body to expend more energy, which burns both glucose and fat. But what exactly happens to your fat reserves when you step into the cold, and how does it really help with fat burning?

The strong cold plunge impulse significantly lowers your skin temperature. Collagen production is stimulated, the skin becomes firmer, and it also gets colder inside your body. Your body, therefore, has to keep your body temperature at a constant 37°C, and it has to use more energy to do so. What exactly happens in your body when you expose yourself to the cold is that your blood vessels contract, which means they release less heat. You will soon notice that you also start to shiver, which causes your body to generate additional heat. The cold also increases your metabolism.

White Fat vs. Brown Fat

The human body contains two main types of fat: white fat and brown fat.

• White fat is primarily a storage tissue for energy and water. It tends to accumulate on the stomach, thighs, and hips, and is the main driver of obesity. White fat usually increases with age.
• Brown fat, on the other hand, not only stores energy but also acts as an internal “furnace.” It helps heat your body and burns significantly more calories.

The more brown fat cells you have, the more heat your body can produce – both during cold plunging and at rest. This means you’re burning more energy not just while you’re in the cold, but also long afterward. In fact, cold plunging creates an afterburn effect, meaning that your body continues to burn an increased amount of calories hours later.

The good news: regular cold exposure can stimulate the transformation of white fat into brown fat, a process called browning. Brown fat burns calories about twice as fast as white fat, but it also disappears quickly if not trained. That’s why consistency with cold plunging is key.

How Many Calories Do You Burn in a Cold Plunge?

The exact number depends on several factors: your body size, weight, how long you stay in the ice bath tub, and how you warm up afterward. Still, research gives us a good estimate.

• Studies have shown that 15 minutes in an ice bath can burn around 250 calories.
• A Scandinavian study found that cold exposure can increase the metabolic activity of brown fat by up to 15%.
• Researchers at Loughborough University in England discovered that even a hot bath can burn calories – about 130 calories in an hour at 40°C. But compare that to cold plunging: double the calories (250) in just a quarter of the time (15 minutes).

A study conducted at Maastricht University also showed that brown adipose tissue can burn 200–400 calories per day, depending on activation.

Do Cold Showers or Cold Drinks Help?

Many people wonder whether cold showers have the same benefits. Unfortunately, the effect is much smaller. A shower doesn’t cool your body as strongly as full immersion in an ice bath tub, and tap water is generally much warmer than proper cold plunge water.

Some people also say that drinking cold water is enough. Your body has to heat the liquid to body temperature and therefore also consumes energy. This process is called thermogenesis, so you consume more calories than you expend by heating the water internally to your body temperature. Unfortunately, the body only consumes 30 to 35 kilocalories to heat one liter of ice water, which is roughly equivalent to one piece of sugar. So the real fat killer is not really taking a warm bath or drinking cold water. Considering the average daily intake of around 2,000 calories, this accounts for just 1.5%. So while it helps a little, it’s not a real fat-burning solution. That said, only a dip in ice-cold water really burns off a lot of calories and does so much later.

Cryotherapy: A High-Tech Alternative

Cryotherapy, short exposure to extreme cold in a specialized chamber, has become popular as well. Treatments typically last 3–5 minutes and cost around 50 euros per session. Like cold plunging, cryotherapy stimulates brown fat activity and can burn up to 400 calories per session with an afterburn effect. That’s roughly 20% of your daily calorie needs.

While effective, cryotherapy is costly and artificial. I would recommend cold plunging, as it is a much more natural, inexpensive, and versatile method. You can choose how long to stay in, practice outdoors, combine it with meditation or breathing techniques, and even share the experience with friends.

Final Thoughts

Cold plunging is not a miracle weight-loss solution, but it’s a powerful tool to support fat burning. By activating brown fat, boosting your metabolism, and creating an afterburn effect, cold plunges can complement your fitness and nutrition plan. And unlike cold showers or cold drinks, full immersion in an ice bath tub offers benefits that go well beyond calorie burning.