Research
Energy balance
Activation of brown adipose tissue (BAT) through cold exposure increases whole-body energy expenditure and improves glucose and lipid metabolism in humans.
If you have detectable brown fat, exposing yourself to cool temperatures (around 17°C or 63°F) for about 2 hours daily can help increase your energy expenditure and reduce body fat. This works by activating your brown fat to burn calories as heat.
GoodSupportsHIGH confidence
In summary, BAT activation through cold exposure was able to increase energy expenditure and have beneficial effects on glucose metabolism supporting its role in treating obesity and related metabolic disorders in humans.
Why this rating
Supported by multiple human clinical studies (PET/CT, metabolic chambers) showing increased energy expenditure and glucose uptake.
Source
Brown Fat and Browning for the Treatment of Obesity and Related Metabolic Disorders
So Hun Kim et al. · Diabetes & Metabolism Journal · 2016
DOI 10.4093/dmj.2016.40.1.12
narrative_reviewCited 229×
Read the paper DOI resolved against Crossref · corpus check 2026-06-10
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