Fight-or-Flight: The New Body Hack

After decades of failed diet pills, toxin filled supplements, and fake vitamins, the American public is sick of the majority of weight loss fads.  Fitness professionals and experts are now focusing on how to use the body’s natural abilities to heal itself. Cryotherapy does this by essentially tricking the mind into thinking that your body is freezing. Once this occurs your brain hyper-oxygenates your blood with inflammation reducing enzymes and nutrients so that it can heal you from any anticipated harm. This same phenomenon occurs on a small scale during an ice bath, or when you go swimming in a very cold pool. Once you are out of the cryosauna (or ice bath) your warm and nutrient rich core blood slowly returns to your extremities and you start to feel refreshed and energized. But it doesn’t end there: nutrient rich blood is immediately pumped into your muscles, reducing any inflammation and delayed onset muscle soreness that are caused by excess wear and tear. You will feel less tired, your muscle soreness rapidly decreases, and you can get back to working out hard again with less fear of an injury.  This is only one way that cryotherapy helps with weight loss.

Does Cryotherapy Burn Calories?

Calories are the major war to win when trying to lose weight.  You can work out harder than anyone, but if you are not putting yourself into a caloric deficit you will not lose weight.  Weight loss occurs only when your body is burning more calories than you are consuming. It works because your body will use calories for energy instead of storing them as fat for later use. Less fat stored on your hips means you can fit into your good jeans again! Here is a helpful chart from Harvard Medical School on how many calories are burned:

A Single Three Minute Cryotherapy Session May Burn up to 800 Calories

To put that into perspective, that’s more than an entire hour of high-impact aerobics! It is important to note that cryotherapy is never a replacement to exercise; instead, it is an augment to your fitness program to help amplify your results.  If you are exercising like crazy and still not losing pounds then cryotherapy can help that.

How Does Cryotherapy Burn Fat?

Cryotherapy burns fat through a body-hack known as thermogenesis.  This is a natural process the body uses to produce heat.  When we are exposed to the cold, our body generates enough heat to keep us functioning.  It does this through thermogenesis (literally “heat production”) and in short, its the process of your cells burning fat/calories to produce energy/heat.  Cryotherapy triggers a cellular reaction in the mitochondria, turning your inactive cells into active ones, requiring them to burn calories by turning your bad fat (white adipose tissue) into good fat (brown adipose tissue).  According to Harvard Medical School

There are two types of fat in the human body: white fat and brown fat. Brown fat is the heat-producing, calorie-burning fat that babies need to regulate their body temperatures. Most of it disappears with age, but adults retain some brown fat. Dutch researchers reported findings last year that showed that moderately cool temperatures of 61° F activated brown fat in 23 of 24 study volunteers. This is a good thing because brown fat burns calories more efficiently than white fat, and so may help control weight. ¹

Since good fats are easier to burn, the more cryotherapy sessions you do will result in more efficient workouts with a greater caloric burn.  As an added bonus, cryotherapy helps reduce the appearance of cellulite.

What Does It Feel like to Do Cryotherapy?

Don’t panic, cryotherapy does not hurt!  In fact, on a hot day it actually feels very good.  Most people are surprised when they see that it doesn’t feel as cold as expected, and that’s because a cryo session lasts for 3 minutes, so it’s over before you know it! Some people do shiver, but that is only an indication that thermogenesis has begun.² We have posted videos of people doing cryotherapy showing people experiencing cryo for the first time.  The best feeling comes from the instant you step out of the cryotherapy chamber: you will instantly feel a warm rush as your oxygen rich and nutrient dense blood begins to flow back to your extremities.  After about 5 minutes you will feel a growing relaxing effect that will last throughout the day. Any aches and pains will be reduced and you will feel energized.

Cryotherapy and Weight Loss Cost

Losing weight is not only hard it can also be expensive!  Keto pills and meals, frozen meals, exercise classes and trainers all add up!  Compare the following chart on how we regularly spend money on things that we really can use less of and improve our bodies by using that money for cryotherapy.

Think about this for a moment… For the price of an iPhone, you could enjoy cryotherapy after your workout every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday for over 3 months!  Could you wait to upgrade your phone to lose 20 pounds? Taking full length selfies wearing skinny clothes with an old phone might very well be worth more than another cellphone upgrade.

Founded on facts: for peer-reviewed articles, scholarly journals, and articles cited above please see the below sources.

1. Cold Weather: Is it good or bad for your health? https://www.health.harvard.edu/press_releases/cold-weather-is-it-good-or-bad-for-your-health

2. Thermogenesis occurs in two forms: shivering and non-shivering. Shivering thermogenesis is the body’s attempt to generate heat mechanically by involuntarily contracting the large muscles. Non-shivering thermogenesis is heat production on a cellular level by a mitochondrial reaction wherein white adipose tissue is changed into brown adipose tissue. Both forms burn calories.

3. For more information see peer reviewed study Non-shivering thermogenesis as a mechanism to facilitate sustainable weight loss. https://doi.org/10.1111/obr.12563