Exposing yourself to cold air could help you lose weight, new research suggests.
Researchers from the Maastricht University Medical Center in The Netherlands found that regular exposure to mild cold may be a "healthy and sustainable" way to boost weight loss, LiveScience reported.
This could mean that warm, cozy homes or offices may be responsible for expanding waistlines.
"Since most of us are exposed to indoor conditions 90 percent of the time, it is worth exploring health aspects of ambient temperatures," Wouter van Marken Lichtenbelt, first author of the study, said in a statement.
Cold temperature causes people's body to generate heat to stay warm; the body also burns calories during this process.
Previous studies revealed that people who spend two hours a day at 62.6 degrees for six weeks had a decrease in body fat.
Lichtenbelt, who has been studying the effects of mild cold for almost 10 years, and his researchers found that frequent mild cold exposure can significantly affect the amount of energy the body expends to stay "over sustained time periods" to stay warm.
Researchers found that people get used to the cold over time. After six hours a day in the cold for a period of 10 days, people in their study felt more comfortable and shivered less at 59 degree temperature.
Researchers said that in young and middle-aged people at least, non-shivering heat production can account for a few percent up to 30 percent of the body's energy budget, they say.
"Indoor temperature in most buildings is regulated to minimize the percentage of people dissatisfied," researchers wrote in the study. "This results in relatively high indoor temperatures in wintertime. This is evident in offices, in dwellings and is most pronounced in care centers and hospitals. By lack of exposure to a varied ambient temperature, whole populations may be prone to develop diseases like obesity. In addition, people become vulnerable to sudden changes in ambient temperature."
