Five ways cryotherapy can help you lose weight

Cryotherapy is about making your body very cold. Although this might seem slightly bizarre, it's proven to help with weight loss. 

This article will discuss how subjecting your body to below-freezing temperatures can help to keep fat at bay.  

What is Cryotherapy?

Cryotherapy is one of the more modern forms of therapy, having come about only recently but already showing to be highly effective.

Although it might sound futuristic and highly scientific, cryotherapy is when the body is subjected to extreme colds. This helps you to build resilience, and importantly for this article, aid with weight loss.

Although subjecting yourself to any form of cold could qualify as cryotherapy, the most common substances used are liquid nitrogen, liquid nitrous oxide, and argon gas.

#1 It helps stimulate the production of brown fat

Usually, when we hear the word 'fat,' it conjures negative connotations. After all, fat leads to conditions such as weight gain and clogged arteries. However, the type of fat that is damaging is white fat. Brown fat has the opposite effect.

Brown fat is an energy store that burns calories. During the production of brown fat, the human body breaks down sugar to create heat, ultimately leading to more substances leaving your body and weight loss.

It seems strange that fat can be responsible for weight loss. But it's true.

At a microscopic level, white fat cells contain one large lipid droplet, whereas brown fat contains many smaller ones. This allows it to release more energy much quicker.

#2 It freezes and kills white fat cells. 

Another benefit of weight loss cryotherapy is its impact on the body's adipose tissue. The substance referred to as 'fat' is scientifically named 'adipose tissue.' The body creates it when we consume fat in our diet.

To kill adipose with cold, temperatures need to go below -85C- which they almost always do during cryotherapy.

When adipose tissue reaches these temperatures, the mitochondria can no longer power the cell, and it dies. As the fat cells disconnect from muscles, they fall into the bloodstream, which takes them to the kidney, to be expelled in urine and feces.

#3 It boosts your metabolism

Metabolism is a word that gets thrown around a lot in scientific circles. But all it means is the speed at which your body converts food into energy. Hence, many skinny people who eat a lot are described as having a fast metabolism.

The metabolism needs to speed up when your body is placed under extreme cold. Because if it doesn't, you will freeze. In a way, cryotherapy is about manipulating evolution to help with weight loss.

#4 It gets you used to be uncomfortable

As effective as cryotherapy is, it's not always too pleasant. However, this is not necessarily a bad thing; being uncomfortable can better help you maintain weight loss.

For example, the next time you feel uncomfortable because you haven't eaten fast food in a while. The uncomfortableness will not impact you too much since you had a chance to get used to it during the cryotherapy.

#5 It boosts your mental health

Physical and mental health are far closer linked than many think. And one of the benefits of whole-body cryotherapy, as with any form of therapy, is that its positive effects on your skin and body can help your mood and, thus, your mental health.

Those with more robust mental health are generally better able to maintain the habits that lead to weight loss.