I’ve heard about all kinds of ways to exercise or things to eat that will make you burn more calories; eating something cold, eating something spicy, wearing extra layers to sweat more, wearing fewer layers to burn more…

I had a conversation with another trainer yesterday about the idea of exercising in the cold and if your body would burn more calories. He was doing an experiment to see if it would work for him. He thinks it does and has lost a few pounds in a week by running in colder temps without adding extra layers of clothing.

Looked a few things up online and here is what I came up with. Yes, when you are cold your body can burn extra calories trying to keep warm. When you shiver your body is trying to generate extra energy to warm itself up. I read you can actually burn up to 400 calories per hour shivering!! That’s kind of crazy, must be a lot of shivering.

Here’s the catch; your body will burn more calories to increase its temps but once you start exercising (in the cold) and your body temp rises you won’t need to generate extra energy anymore to warm up so you won’t burn extra calories. It sounds like the extra calorie burn only happens during the warm-up phase; once you are warm your body burns normal again.

One of the articles did state that your body will actually burn more calories in hot weather while it works to cool itself.

So, either way, cold or hot, it seems there are benefits to burning some extra calories. If its cold be sure to wear a hat and gloves, cover your skin to stay safe but don’t over do it. Get the extra benefit of working harder to get warm.

Next time the weather is not perfect outside for your workout you can remember the added benefit instead of skipping it.