Recently, my gym has had issues with our heating units. With it being January and all, that can potentially pose a problem with the satisfaction of our members.
“It’s so cold in here I can hardly break a sweat!”
“I’ve been shivering ever since I walked through the door.”
Although I’m sorry for their discomfort, there is a positive out of all of this.
Your body actually burns more calories trying to warm itself up than when it’s trying to cool itself down.
Mind-boggling, I know.
Here’s how it works.
When you sweat, your blood vessels dilate in order to let the water in your blood rise to the surface of the skin. It will then evaporate and cause a cooling sensation, lowering the core temperature in your body. Just because you may be sweating doesn’t necessarily mean you’re burning calories. If the a/c is broken in your house in July and you’re sitting on your couch sweating like a pig, that’s not a calorie burn. If you’re sweating because your muscles are moving during exercise and are producing heat as a byproduct of energy production, then you’re sweating because of a calorie burn.
When you shiver, your body is trying to warm itself up by causing the muscles to contract at a super high rate in order to produce heat. Energy (in the form of calories) is used to make the muscles contract. When heat is produced through muscle contractions, then your body returns to its usual temperature.
This is how you regulate temperature.
Here’s a good example. I know most of you have seen a survival show at some point in your life. Remember during the cold environment episodes, “Surviving the Tundra” or whatever, how the host always says that finding a food source is crucial since your body burns through calories at a much faster rate in the environments?
They were right.
Now your case is a little different than theirs since you’re not fighting for your life, you’re just trying to work out. Don’t let the cold weather stop you. Although you may not feel like you did as much because your sweat output isn’t as high as it is in the summer time, you actually burned more calories.
So the next time you want to complain about how cold it is, you should actually be thankful.
“Thanks for the opportunity to burn even more calories during my workout.”
