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How to Enhance the Benefits of Cold Thermogenesis

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Baby, it’s cold outside…GOOD.

Before I get into the details, I recommend joining my Fire & Ice Contrast Therapy (Hot-Cold) facebook group.

There is an ancient Japanese practice called misogi that helps you reestablish a harmonious relationship with yourself and everything around you. The approach that is best known is through exposing the body to ice-cold water. A person typically immerses him or herself in a lake, waterfall or the sea. After performing misogi properly, you enter sumikiri – a state of pure clarity of body and mind. It is said that in this condition, your heart is as bright and clear as a cloudless sky, untainted by obstructive thoughts or worldly concerns.

Cold plunging is my misogi and I feel a sense of sumikiri every time I do it.

A Cold Thermogenesis Refresher

Cold water therapy — whether it’s a quick swim in an icy lake, a post-workout ice bath, or a brisk shower — can benefit your health in several ways.

Research has shown it can help you:

  • cut down on muscle soreness
  • cool down after a sweaty workout
  • get into a better mood (I know it does for me!)
  • aid your immune system
  • boost your metabolism and calorie burning
  • increase insulin sensitivity and help control blood glucose levels

It can even convert belly fat into metabolically active brown adipose tissue (BAT), which will increase your fat-burning capacity. More on this in a minute.

Some advocates say it can also decrease inflammation, improve your sleep and recovery, sharpen your mental focus and potentially fight certain types of disease as well as promote overall longevity. But more research needs to be done to determine if these benefits are supported by science.

How can cold thermogenesis do all this?  

Human beings are probably not meant to be in a constantly controlled environment where we live, work, play and exercise.  Constant temperature control is a modern, technological convenience. We very likely evolved to and even thrive in cold temperatures. 

We’re arguably not meant to be at a constant, comfortable temperature, and most likely true, optimal health requires at least occasional cold and hot practices.

I wrote about How I Built My Chest Freezer Ice Bath because that’s the most convenient way to get all the benefits of cold. But there are things you can “stack” on top of cold exposure to maximize the time spent in the cold.

How I Built My Chest Freezer Ice Bath

Hacks to Enhance the Benefits

One of the best things you can do to maximize the benefits of cold exposure is to increase the conversion of white to brown adipose tissue (WAT/BAT) because BAT is more metabolically demanding, meaning it burns more fat. Cold exposure is one of the hacks I use to keep body fat low without having to rely on nutrition and exercise alone.

Here are things to combine with cold exposure to maximize its benefits, including WAT/BAT conversion.

  • Do it fasted or better yet, in a ketogenic state – ketones can significantly increase the brown fat conversion (according to this rodent study). To get in a ketogenic state, drink something like Bulletproof coffee with grass-fed butter and MCT oil.
  • Maximize blood sugar control – Cold thermogenesis increases levels of brown fat and a higher ratio of brown fat can increase sensitivity to insulin, allowing the cells of the body to use blood glucose more effectively, thereby reducing blood sugar. In addition to getting into a ketogenic state before a cold plunge, taking a couple capsules of a supplement that contains a blood sugar stabilizer such as berberine or bitter melon extract (like this one), a shot of apple cider vinegar or a teaspoon or two of Ceylon cinnamon or cayenne extract in your morning beverage can enhance the fat-burning effects even more. If you’re concerned about losing muscle, or you’re attempting to gain significant lean muscle mass, 10-20 grams of essential amino acids can also be consumed in this window, which will provide a bit of an anabolic effect without significantly spiking blood glucose or insulin.
  • Do some breathing exercises before and as you get in. Focused breathing is one of the best ways to properly prepare the mind for a cold plunge. Inhale through the nose and out through the mouth. Extend the exhale. Strive for a three second inhale, pause, and then six seconds, exhale. Then, start your timer and carefully and slowly step in.
  • Ground your water. As Brian Hoyer, a world-renowned electro magnetic field (EMF) specialist and founder of Shielded Healing describes the video below, a grounded cold plunge can provide the same therapeutic benefits as you would get from grounding in nature.

  • Expose your shoulders and face. This is where you’ll get maximum benefit and adapt to the cold faster. The shoulders/lower neck are one of the largest sources of BAT so by exposing it to cold, you’ll activate the metabolically demanding BAT. Exposing your face to cold water works because the vagus nerve in your face is connected to nerves in the rest of your nervous system throughout your body, which will translate over to the rest of your body and allow you to tolerate ice baths and cold showers far more easily.
  • Maximize the effects of cold exposure by moving. Many people use deliberate cold exposure to stimulate metabolism, reduce inflammation, for resilience training and for the well-established increases in dopamine that it triggers. One lesser-known tool is be sure that you continuously move your body while in cold water immersion. That breaks up the thermal layer around your body and makes it even colder and causes the releases even more adrenaline which is the primary stimulus for the positive affects of deliberate cold exposure. The takeaway: to get the most out of deliberate cold exposure keep your mind “still” but move your limbs continuously throughout. You will get more benefits without having to increase the duration. If you’re using cold showers this is hard to do. There I would just make sure that you’re completely under the water. No hugging yourself during or after. 
  • Supplements
    • Coffee and Green Tea – Coffee, according to a new study in Scientific Reports, can stimulate brown fat into action. Green Tea (EGCG) specifically is one of the most documented potential fat burners. The combination of caffeine plus the catechins from green tea can really drive up some fatty acid oxidation.
      • A meta-analysis published in Obesity Reviews looked at the effect of a catechin-caffeine green tea mixture on energy expenditure and fat oxidation.
      • The caffeine and catechins contained in green tea extract appear to have a thermogenic effect on the body – explaining increases in energy expenditure and fat oxidation. Drinking a warm cup of coffee or tea can also get you ready for a nice cold plunge!
    • Fish Oil, can increase metabolism and decrease accumulation of fat by up to 15-20% (in mice) when combined with cold. The EPA in fish oil specifically has been reported to promote brown adipogenesis.
    • Melatonin has been shown to increase brown adipose tissue mass, which can lead to important metabolic effects. So if you’re doing cold exposure before bed, it might be worth taking a little melatonin before the cold exposure.
    • Resveratrol, a polyphenol compound found in red wine, cabbage, berries and spinach initiated fat browning in tissue cultures and also in live mice. 
    • Curcumin, a component of turmeric, induced fat browning in mice. 
    • I like Thorne’s PolyResveratrol which contains curcumin, green tea and resveratrol, all of which enhance the white to brown fat conversion.
    • Vitamin C and Vitamin E – If your goal is to reduce the inflammatory response and pain from a workout, this study showed you can do that by taking vitamins C (1 g) and E (800 UI) with cryotherapy 40 minutes before exercise.

This minireview summarized the current knowledge of some dietary compounds that have been shown to promote BAT activation and WAT browning with subsequent beneficial health effects.

My Routine

Here’s my routine to maximize the benefits of cold exposure. Before jumping into my chest freezer ice bath, I do the following, first thing in the morning before eating anything:

  1. Cold Thermo Stack – I take Thorne’s SuperEPA and PolyResveratrol. I take these supplements with a glass of water and a tsp of apple cider vinegar.
  2. Coffee – Then I make some Purity coffee and add a Tbsp of MCT oil or 100% cacao. This not only helps in getting into a ketogenic state, it also helps the body absorb the fat-soluble nutrients in the Cold Thermo stack and enhances the benefits of my upcoming fasted cardio.
  3. Sauna or Ruck – I drink my coffee while I warm up with some fasted cardio, typically in my Clearlight Infrared sauna or rucking for 30 minutes with a 30lb GORUCK bag (while also walking my dog).
  4. Ice plunge – I then take the plunge (in my grounded chest freezer), anywhere for 2-5 minutes at around 34 degrees F. During my plunge, I run through a focus-improving Fixation Training Activity (explained here by Dr. Andrew Huberman) and then I try to visualize my wife and two kids. This cognitively demanding activity helps anchor my mind which can be very, very helpful for maintaining clarity of mind (as explained here by Dr. Huberman).
  5. End with Red Light and Breathwork – A colder body has been shown to absorb more red light so I use my Clearlight Red Light Tower and my GembaRed panels for 15 minutes post plunge. I also do a breathwork routine (actually Laird Hamilton’s morning breathwork routine) to mentally prepare myself and oxygenate my body.
GembaRed is a great, lower cost option to the Clearlight Red Light Tower. They make affordable low flicker, low-EMF light panels. Use code antifragile for 10% off GembaRed.

If you’re new to cold exposure, start around 54 degrees F, which is the temperature where many of the benefits start. The colder it is, the less time you have to be exposed for the same benefits.

Or you could simple start with a hot-cold shower: 10 seconds warm, 20 seconds cold, repeat 8-10 more times.

Cold Thermo Stack

You can purchase my Cold Thermogenesis Enhancement Stack here which contains a bag of the highest-quality coffee, Thorne’s SuperEPA, Thorne’s PolyResveratrol and MCT oil.

PURCHASE THE COLD STACK (Use code AAVIP10 for 10%)

If you need a more detailed approach, I recommend joining my Fire & Ice Contrast Therapy (Hot-Cold) facebook group.

Related Articles

Resources

Here’s a list of studies if you’d like to take a deeper dive into the benefits of cold thermogenesis.

Disclosure: Please note that some of the links above are affiliate links, and at no additional cost to you, I will earn a commission if you decide to make a purchase. Oftentimes, I’ve worked out a discount for you. Please understand that I have experience with all of these products, and I only recommend them because they are helpful and useful, not because of the small commissions I make if you decide to buy something. Please do not spend any money on these products unless you feel you need them or that they will help you achieve your goals.

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