In the winter, the central heating can be a life saver, but could having the heating on actually be damaging to your wellbeing? According to Dutch researchers, the use of central heating prevents your body using up energy to stay warm, which could be helping to drive up your obesity level. If you’re looking to lose weight, the research team advocate turning down the heating in your home and/or office in order to burn more calories – but aren’t there other wellness factors to consider? Surely there’s no point being skinny if you end up cold, miserable and possibly freezing to death!
The paper was written by researchers from MaastrichtUniversity and Avans Hogeschool, both in the Netherlands, and published in the peer reviewed journal Science and Society. The report was a narrative review on the topic of cold exposure, energy expenditure and its relationship to obesity. A narrative review uses certain studies in support of a particular argument. However, the NHS warns, ‘The authors do not appear to have searched the literature in a systematic way (a systematic review) nor do they report on how the search for literature was carried out. There is a risk that important evidence may have been overlooked or ignored.’
Still, the paper does make some interesting points. The paper notes that we can now control the temperature around us more easily, which means our bodies no longer need to expend as much energy to control internal temperature. We have also experienced a rise in obesity which, the researchers say, is linked not only to excessive food intake but also to physical inactivity (reduced energy expenditure). When you are cold enough, you start to shiver and burn energy at a greater rate – up to five times quicker than we would normally. This helps you to burn calories and, as a result, lose weight.
However, as shivering all day long is both unpleasant, unhealthy and make you unproductive, the researchers focus on “non-shivering thermogenesis” (NST), a method of keeping warm which does not entail shivering. This basically involves you keeping the temperature low enough to burn calories without shivering. The researchers assert that non-shivering heat production can account for up to 30% of the body’s energy budget in young and middle-aged people. They researchers suggest that a mildly cold temperature indoors – say, for example, 18-19 degrees C can result in the same increases in NST. This is roughly the same temperature as you would experience outdoors during June in England.
Without turning down temperatures in our homes, offices and public places, the researchers warn that ‘entire populations may be prone to developing diseases such as obesity.’ So should you turn down your heating to lose weight? According to the NHS website, ‘Slightly turning down the thermostat could certainly help your “energy balance”. There is a certain logic to the theory that if you’re cold the body will use energy to stay warm. But as yet there is no hard evidence to suggest this will help you stay a healthy weight. Staying warm in winter is important for health, especially for those who are vulnerable to cold such as the elderly and people with chronic conditions such as asthma. Current advice is that indoor heating should be around 18-21oC. Maybe one way to combine the benefits of temperature and physical activity is to regularly take brisk walks or jogs during the winter months. While this may not be a guaranteed method of burning of your brown fat, it should help contribute towards your fitness levels and lift your mood.’
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