Shivering: Cut Calories and Lose Weight

It's Febuarary. It's cold. It's snowing far too much and the last thing you want to do is go to the gym. According to a new study, you might not have to. All you will need to do is turn down the heat.

The study, released by scientists at Sydney University, found that cold temperatures encourage the release of hormones that lead to greater calorie burning; no exercise required.

How does this work? Dr. Paul Lee, who led the study, wrote in his release that exposure to colder temperatures and the shivering of one's body result in the release of two hormones called irisin and FGF21. These hormones essentially take white fat -- known for storing calories in humans -- and convert it into brown fat. Brown fat, a fat once only thought to be found in babies, is a fat capable of burning up to 300 calories a day in order to emit heat and regulate body temperature. Not surprisingly, this unusual type of fat is found at a more common rate in thinner people.

In Lee's study, volunteers were placed in temperature less than 59F (15C) for 1-15 minutes. What happened next was remarkable. The levels of irisn released from muscle tissue when shivering was nearly equal to the levels released after the same subject spent nearly an hour pedaling on exercise bikes.

It was also found that the amount of hormones released was proportional to the amount of shivering done by the test subjects.

Of course, the human body can only shiver for so long before becoming exhausted, but the same can be said of exercising.

The Australian scientist and his colleagues concluded the release of their study with an acknowledgement that further research into the irisn and brown fat relationship may result in new strategy to treat or prevent obesity.

 "Perhaps lowering the thermostat during the winter months could help both the budget and metabolism," the release concluded.

The study is published in the scientific journal Cell Metabolism.