Mykonos food lab is focused on slow foods and a faster metabolism.  I have been explaining my daily Japanese regime, that includes water temperatures of opposite degrees in multiple repetitions of up to an hour.

Cold water can boost your metabolism which, in turn, can technically help you lose weight. Although cold water for weight loss might sound feasible in theory, it does not mean you can take a cold bath and expect instant results. For cold water submersion to have any effect on weight loss, repeated submersion is necessary to boost the activity level of your brown fat cells.

White fat is the fat responsible for weight gain and calorie storage. White fat also serves to insulate, with deposits in various areas throughout the body. White fat has little or no metabolic activity, regardless of temperature.

Brown fat, on the other hand, burns calories and produces heat. It is the fat responsible for regulating the body temperatures in babies and, although it largely disappears as you age, some of it is retained into adulthood in the upper chest and above the collarbone, the “Harvard Health Letter” and CNN Health report.

Cold water can boost your metabolism which, in turn, can technically help you lose weight. Although cold water for weight loss might sound feasible in theory, it does not mean you can take a cold bath and expect instant results. For cold water submersion to have any effect on weight loss, repeated submersion is necessary to boost the activity level of your brown fat cells.

Because brown fat is responsible for regulating body temperature, it can boost metabolism when the body is exposed to colder temperatures. Such is the case when you submerge yourself in cold water. Although the “Harvard Health Letter” notes submersion in cold water is not necessarily a weight-loss technique, exposing brown fat to cold temperatures can increase activity of brown fat and burn off more calories.

A study entitled “Cold-Activated Brown Adipose Tissue in Healthy Men,” published in the April 9, 2009, issue of “The New England Journal of Medicine,” involved repeatedly subjecting 24 men to colder temperatures to gauge their brown fat activity. Ten of the men had healthy body weights, while the other 14 were overweight or obese. The eight researchers heading the study found the brown fat tissue became active in all but one of the overweight men when the men were exposed to colder air temperatures of 60 degrees Fahrenheit for two-hour sessions each day over a 14-month period.

Using cold temperatures for therapeutic benefits, or cryotherapy, is nothing new, although it has not typically been part of a weight-loss program. The practice was developed in Japan to treat inflammation and pain, the “Harvard Health Letter” reports, with patients spending at least one minute in a room with the temperature set at minus 166 F. Winter swimming is a regular practice in Russia and Finland, with benefits that include an increase in the body’s production of norepinephrine, a chemical that helps suppress pain.

My strategy for weight control although unproven is; enter a dry sauna at a temperature of 33 Celsius for 12 minutes and then submerge your body into a cold bath at a temperature of 18 Celsius for 3 minutes. This is done in 5 -15 minutes intervals but check with a doctor regarding your health to avoid a heart attack.