A few months ago, a Scottish study intended to shake up preconceived ideas by showing that turning up the heating in our homes allowed us to stay slim simply because we spent less time snacking to try to warm up. A new Dutch study confirms what many scientists have already pointed out: turning down the heat in winter not only saves money, but also helps you stay slim.
According to researchers at Maastricht University, it is by living in comfortable houses and working in warm offices that our waistlines have grown!
After working for ten years on the effects of cold on the metabolism, researchers concluded, not without surprise, that when you are cold you burn a lot more calories than when you are hot enough. The thermogenesis thus stimulated helps to fight against weight gain. As Dr Wouter van Marken Lichtenbelt explains: “With the exception of people who work outdoors, we spend 90% of our days indoors, so we don’t burn enough calories. The ideal for health would be to lower the temperature so as not to store the calories that we ingest as fat ”.
Thermogenesis is the body’s primary heat production and thermoregulation mechanism. This metabolic heat is generated from the oxidation of fatty acids from the fat stock that we have in our adipose tissue. It is not only exposure to cold that stimulates this thermogenesis: psychological situations such as fear and stress or even taking certain drugs can also stimulate it and increase our energy expenditure.
