What Happens To Body After 30 Days Cold Showers (Science Explained)

What would happen like a 38 warm up. You took a cold shower every single day in the cold. Today we're doing a deep dive into the science. And I'll also reveal the results I got from doing the 30 day cold protocol. I'll share later on. Now it seems like wherever you look, all the top athletes and celebrities are taking cold showers, ice baths, and just using cold therapy in general. And honestly, after looking at the research, I can see why they do. But what are the specific benefits you can expect? How cold does the water need to be? Can it help with fat loss or building muscle? Are there any side effects you should know about? Well, you'll start experiencing benefits right from day one. It will be the hardest day, but also the most rewarding. You see, exposing your body to cold seems to release three key hormones. Norepinephrine, epinephrine and dopamine. Together, these stimulate what's known as your sympathetic nervous system or your fight or flight response. This is what makes you panic and feel as if you need to escape or yell during the cold exposure. Now, the cold not only elevates these hormones during the exposure, but it keeps them elevated for an extended period of time afterwards. Anywhere from 30 minutes to several hours, depending on how cold the water was and how long you were in it. The benefit of this is improved mood, energy and focus, similar to the feeling you get after going for a run or doing a workout. Coffee actually works in a similar way by activating the sympathetic nervous system. It's why many people find they no longer need to rely on coffee in the morning if they instead just jump straight into the cold. But to experience these benefits, there's a few things you need to know. First, the temperature of the water needs to be cold enough. One study compared cold water immersion at 90 degrees and 70 degrees and 60 degrees Fahrenheit. They found a significant increase in dopamine and norepinephrine in the 60 degree group, but not the others. Now, I measured a couple of showers after sending it to the coldest setting and it clocked in at about 50 degrees Fahrenheit. I am from Canada, so the water is a little bit colder here, but still, I'd expect most showers should be able to get around that level. But to tell if it's cold enough without a thermometer, research suggests it should trigger what's known as the initial inspiratory gas. This is a deep breath your body instinctively takes as soon as you feel the cold. But you also need to stay in the cold for Long enough. Thing is, the subjects in the study I mentioned earlier, they sat in the cold water for an hour. I don't know about you, but I'm not planning to take hour long showers every day. I did, however, find several studies showing benefits with shorter durations of even just 20 seconds of cold exposure. But in most cases, they used an ice bath instead of a shower, so the body could be fully immersed. But this doesn't mean a 30 second cold shower won't do anything. Even if your hormonal increase isn't significant by research standards, you'll still very likely feel a benefit and an increased mood. I mean, I sure do. And comment below if you also notice a difference after a cold shower. But to keep feeling that mental benefit over time, there's one more thing you need to know. It's called attenuation. So over time, your body adapts to the cold and the hormonal response seems to die down. Once you notice this, you can try making the water colder or stay in it for longer to continue feeling the benefit. All right, we've talked about the mental benefits, but what about fat loss? A common theory is that exposure to the cold boosts your metabolism. Since your body is trying to heat up, this burns more calories and can accelerate fat loss as a result. What does research say? Well, it's true cold exposure can boost your metabolism. Most research suggests that exposure to the cold increases your metabolism by around 15%. A 2021 study, however, found that cold water immersion increased calorie burn in far more than this, up to 50% in well trained athletes. This took their estimated daily calorie burn from 2,000 calories a day all the way up to 3,000 calories. And given that 1 pound of fat is equivalent to roughly 3,500 calories, this would, in theory, mean the subjects could burn off a pound of fat every three days just from their cold protocol. However, before you plan your move to Antarctica, there's two catches you need to be aware of. First, subjects in the study were immersed in the cold for over three hours. The average shower length is eight minutes, and the amount of time you'd spend showering in the cold would only be a fraction of that. Second, the researchers tested metabolism while the subjects were in the cold. They used that value to estimate how many calories they burned for 24 hours. But this assumes they'd continue burning calories at the same rate for the rest of the day, which is very unlikely. So even if you crunch the data while being super optimistic, it likely wouldn't end up anywhere close to enough to make a meaningful effect for fat loss unless you quite literally sat in the cold water all day every day. But that said, there was a study released just this year that throws a curveball to what I just said. It even took me by surprise. Subjects were put into a weekly cold protocol of 530 second cold showers and 12 minute cold water immersion to the neck. After each exposure, they let their bodies naturally warm up for 10 minutes, meaning they ended the protocol with a cold rather than turning the shower to hot water right after doing the cold water. After eight weeks of this, the men in the study lost just over 1cm off their waist and experienced a significant reduction in their visceral belly fat. This is a dangerous belly fat deep within your organs. The women, however, didn't experience any significant effects and it's unclear why now. Although at least for men, this sounds promising. I decided to take a closer look in the study and I found some serious issues. You see, the authors only reported the results from the cold experimental group, but to truly understand whether the results were caused by the cold, you need to compare them against a control group. For whatever reason, the researchers decided not to do this even though they actually took the time to include a control group in the first place. But if you do compare the two groups, you'll find that there wasn't any significant difference between them. This was just one of the many issues with this paper, which is why I personally wouldn't feel confident with any of its findings for now. A far more effective and proven way to lose fat is to use a well designed nutrition and training plan. And if you need help setting one up using the latest science, just head over to builtwithscience.com and take my 32nd quiz to find the best program for you and your body. So we talked about your mood and we talked about fat loss, but what about muscle recovery and growth? How does cold exposure affect that? Well, this is where things get really interesting. So ice baths have long been used as a recovery method for top level athletes and for good reason. They've been shown in multiple studies to speed up recovery by reducing muscle soreness, fatigue and inflammation after a training session. This is great for athletes who need to recover quickly between events, but if you're looking to build muscle and strength, this may actually be a problem. You see, after a workout, your muscles temporarily become damaged and inflamed. It's part of their recovery process to grow bigger and stronger. Taking ice baths immediately after your workout can interfere with this process by Reducing the inflammation. This is one of the possible reasons why three studies have now shown that post training cold water immersion significantly decreases muscle growth. So if you want to maximize growth and strength, you definitely want to avoid ice baths immediately after workout. Either do it before the workout, at least four, six hours after your workout, or on a separate day altogether. For example, I personally do them on my rest day and several hours after my leg day to take advantage of the recovery and soreness benefits without impairing my gains. As for cold showers, the studies I mentioned, they all used ice baths which where subjects stayed immersed in the water for anywhere between 10 to 20 minutes. So pretty intense protocols. Based on that, I would speculate that a quick cold shower after a workout probably wouldn't have any negative effects on muscle growth and isn't really something to worry about. But it also probably wouldn't do anything meaningful for your recovery, so it might not be worth the potential downside. Alright, so we've talked about mental benefits, we've talked about fat loss, and we've talked about muscle recovery and growth. But there's one more benefit you should know about. That's actually the main reason why I personally make the effort to incorporate cold showers and ice baths into my routine. Forcing yourself to mentally withstand a stressor like the cold is an incredible way to strengthen your mind. One of the ways it does this is by activating an area of your brain that suppresses impulsivity. This can help you remain calm and not overreact whenever stressors come into your life. But this also helps build tremendous resilience and grit that can positively transfer into other areas of your life. For example, during a tough leg workout, just like I do with a cold, I simply view the pain as a sensation. A sensation that I can overcome with my mind to push my body past my mental limits. Now, for those interested, this is a protocol I'm currently following. I'd recommend start with cold showers. Work your way up to 30 seconds to a minute and then over time, try to stay in there for even longer or if possible, make the water even colder. And to further intensify the benefits, consider investing in the cold tub, which will also give you some of the recovery benefits that showers just don't seem to provide. Now, although all of this probably won't do much for fat loss, you can click here for a video on what I believe is the most underrated exercise you could start doing today to lose fat faster. Thanks for watching. I'll see you next time.