After learning that cold showers can raise mood, I started taking cold showers. The mood improvement was hard to notice but it was easy to notice that I became more comfortable in the cold. My apartment seemed warmer.
To increase the effect, I increased the water flow (by unplugging shower-head holes that were clogged) and lowered the water temperature (running the water several minutes before starting the shower). The water was obviously colder and its effects larger. Now the showers did raise my mood, for maybe an hour. It was curious how they were unpleasant for only a second.
After a week or so of the colder showers, it became clear, alas, that my weight was increasing. I gained about 2 pounds. There was no obvious explanation for this other than the cold showers. I hadn’t changed my diet in a big way. I hadn’t changed my activities. And there is plenty of evidence that skin temperature controls body fat. For example, a study of three types of exercise (stationary bike, walking, and swimming) in women found that the women who biked and walked lost weight but the women who swam did not, in spite of equal fitness improvement. So I have stopped the cold showers.
wow, 2 lbs.? for me, any change less than 5 lbs. is experimental noise…
Why did the mood improvement seem clearly less valuable than the weight gain?
I wonder if you can reduce the weight-increasing effects of a morning cold shower with an evening hot soak or steam?
I started taking cold showers during a period where I was getting very little sleep. I found them to be kind of addictive, refreshing and a nice surrogate for a cup of coffee before leaving the house. I’ve always been a believer that taking a splash in a body of cold water is one of the most invigorating and natural human enterprises. A short swim in cold water also happens to erase a hangover. Never noticed any weight gain.
In the coldest months of winter I usually find they don’t have the same appeal. But from May-September I probably could count on one hand the number of hot showers I take.
It is disturbing news for me.
As I just got into terms with Tim Ferriss (4hourbody) experiments that cold water makes the body loose fat more quickly.
Did I get it wrong?
Warm regards,
Petra
Having authored a chapter in it, presumably you read The Four Hour Body. What did you think of Tim coming to the opposite conclusion and recommending cold exposure for fat loss?
This is one intervention that I think I won’t even try. I’ve taken a few cold showers in my life (not by choice) — and, unlike Seth (“they were unpleasant for only a second”), I found them to be miserable the whole time.
Seth,
Since you have a masochistic streak, you might try sleeping on the floor (i.e. with only a yoga mat or carpet for padding). I started that a while back to address some lower back pain and kept it up even after the back pain went away. I’d be interested to if you find any measurable effects. All I can say is that I ended up kind of liking it (and in fact I should start doing it again). Unlike you, I’m too lazy and disorganized to collect the necessary data (mood is too hard for me to quantify, for example).
David
Paul McGlothin, author of “The CR Way,” mentioned yesterday on the Calorie Restriction discussion list that he tried cold showers “but stopped the practice immediately when I found that they play havoc with glucose control when eating afterwords. Measuring subsequent meals with my trusty glucometer told the tale.” He didn’t explain exactly what the phenomenon entailed, but the potential for a connection with weight gain is intriguing in the present context.
If the weight gain is a one-time event, so it stabilizes after the initial increase, what’s the harm? If you feel warmer, and therefore turn down your thermostat, you’re burning more calories just being there.
Tim Ferriss, in his recently released book The Four Hour Body, actually recommends taking cold showers as a way to increase weight loss-
https://www.nypost.com/p/news/opinion/books/the_hour_body_DO5FDjwAeNFVrFfMvFnvoJ
David,
maybe it was a residual effect from being more connected to the earth’s electrical potential ?
You could test this by walking barefoot over wet gras (morning dew) and see if you have the same effects.
I’m working my way through Ferriss’ book and have taken two ice cold showers. This news (from Seth) is disturbing!
While you might not have noticed a change in your diet, you probably were eating more. Cold water exposure does that, and it’s one reason for the swimmer effect.
I’m sure Seth is aware of the 4 hour body book, since he’s actually in the book
In the Four Hour Body, Tim recommends a regimen quite different than what I did. Cronise, from whom Tim got the idea, started like this:
I took a 4 or 5 minute cold shower daily — that’s all. I am not sure they caused weight gain but my weight started going up shortly after I started them and started going down soon after I stopped them. Tim’s milder recommendation is to use an ice-pack on the back of the neck for 30 minutes. Perhaps cooling the blood going to the brain (ice pack) is quite different than cooling all of your skin (what I did).
Another easy cold exposure is to wash your hair (just holding your head under the water, not your body) with ice cold water.
Much better for your hair then warm/hot water by the way…
Are you sure that the 2lbs was fat gain? I agree with Vic that, for me, 2lbs seems like just normal variation. And for me any weight change would have to be a lot more than 2lbs to have any idea whether the weight change is from
increased fat vs muscle vs water retention.
Edward, it looked nothing like normal variation. It looked like a steady increase. It certainly wasn’t increased muscle. I wasn’t doing anything to cause increased water retention but I can less easily rule that out.
I feel your body did not have enough fat to be expose to cold shower so it added fat to balance it out. Right?