Today, more people than ever are turning to cryotherapy to help them with weight loss. But how exactly does cryotherapy help someone lose weight?
Let’s dive into the topic and tell you everything about how cryotherapy helps with weight loss. Going behind the science behind how cryotherapy can burn calories.
How does cryotherapy help with weight loss? Cryotherapy can help a person with weight through raising their metabolic rate. When exposed to extreme cold temperatures, a person’s metabolic rate will rise to fight off the effects of the cold. Resulting in your body burning potentially hundreds of extra calories.
The Science Behind Cryotherapy and Weight Loss
Have you ever watched one of those survival shows set in Alaska? In the series Alone, one season winner was able to kill a moose and eat the entire show but still lost 30 lbs.
How does that even sound possible? The reason for this drastic weight loss was due to his metabolic rate skyrocketing from the below freezing temperatures.
This is exactly how cryotherapy functions. When your body is exposed to extreme cold, it forces your body into survival mode. Your metabolic rate skyrockets forcing your body to burn more calories to try and keep from freezing.
Does Cryotherapy Really Help with Weight Loss?
There have only been a handful of studies done to prove that cryotherapy helps with weight loss. Although the results of the studies done so far have been promising.
One study in particular led by Dr. Magdalena Wiecek was accepted into the National Library of Medicine (Link Here). Dr. Magdalena along with four of her colleagues tested how cryotherapy would effect obese menopausal women and healthy women.
Both groups of women were given 20 WBC sessions to see if they had any affect on fat loss. The doctors were surprised to find that both groups exposed to -130 Celsius temperature both lost weight.
The BMI and height to waist ratio in both groups both decreased after 10 WBC sessions. Although the biomarkers for each group were vastly different, both groups of women did experience fat loss.
Of course, this is only one of a few controlled tests done on WBC therapy. More tests will need to be done in the future to scientifically prove that cryotherapy can help with weight loss.
How Many Calories are Burned During Cryotherapy?
The calories a person can burn in a 3 minute WBC session will depend on their size and fat percentage. A taller person with a larger amount of body fat will obviously burn more than a smaller person.
It is believed that a person(depending on their size) can burn anywhere between 500-800 calories per session. Basically the same amount of calories that would be burned during a hard cardio workout in just three minutes.
How Many Cryotherapy Sessions Will You Need to Do to Lose Weight?
If you want cryotherapy to help assist you with weight loss, you will have to do them regularly. Doing just one session won’t do anything to help you with your weight loss goal.
From the statistics of the study mentioned above, you will need between 10 to 20 WBC sessions to see results.
Let’s do a quick estimate at the potential calories you could burn doing 10 or 20 cryo sessions. Maybe you’ll be on the high end and burn 800 calories per WBC session.
After 10 sessions, that would come out to 8000 calories burned and 16,000 burned after 20 sessions. A pound of fat weighs 3500, so you potentially lose 2 to 4 pounds of body fat from doing WBC sessions.
This of course is an estimate and there’s no guarantee that you’ll experience weight loss from doing cryotherapy.
How can You Enhance the Effects of Cryotherapy?
Doing cryotherapy alone will not help you lose weight. You will have to implement various other things into your routine to help you lose weight. Here is what you will have to do along with cryotherapy.
Exercise Regularly
Cryotherapy will not help you lose weight if you are not also exercising regularly. You will need to make exercise a normal part of your life where you’re exercising at least five times a week.
Particularly with a focus on cardio and muscular endurance to help you burn fat. These types of exercises could help you burn up to 500 to 1000 calories per session.
These high calorie burning workouts along with regular WBC sessions can help you meet your goal in no time.
Implement a Diet
What is more important for weight loss than regular cryotherapy sessions or working out is your diet. All of the exercising and cryo in the world won’t matter if you aren’t eating properly.
If you really want to meet your weight loss goal, you’ll have to implement some sort of diet. It doesn’t have to be anything really strict, but something where you take in less calories.
To put it bluntly, the way you lose weight is by putting yourself at a caloric deficit. Meaning that you’re burning more calories than you’re taking in.
So, if you’re taking in 2,500 calories a day, aim for 1500 to 2000 instead. This small deficit will help you gradually lose weight along with doing regular cryotherapy.
Drink More Water
Not only will you need to alter your diet, but also drink more water in order for cryotherapy to work. Anytime you consult a dietician, one of the first questions they will ask is how much water are you drinking.
Proper hydration is the key to not only weight loss, but your body functioning properly. Water is the most important element for our bodies to function and is what helpers filter out toxins.
When you’re properly hydrated, your body is functioning at an optimal level and will be able to lose more weight. Most physicians say that you need to be drinking at least a gallon of water a day or more.
Also remember that you should always drink plenty of water before doing WBC sessions for it to work optimally.
Cryotherapy Works… But It Needs Help
Cryotherapy can help you burn extra calories and meet your weight loss goal, but cryo alone won’t do the job. You will need to do cryo sessions regularly along exercising routinely, and implementing a healthy diet. If you do all of these things you will no doubt reach your weight loss goal and feel like a whole new person.