Cryotherapy for Weight and Fat Loss: How it Works

How Does Cryotherapy Burn Fat?

Everyone wants to know how this works! Cryotherapy is a new concept for most people, and knowledge of how and why it can promote weight and fat loss is not readily available. At ChillRx, we have medical staff who oversee our weight and fat-loss protocols. We have helped many clients lose weight (and inches, including cellulite). We have trademarked protocols that offer our clients personalized, medically based treatments to help them lose weight and fat.

The human physiological response to cold can actually elicit mechanisms that activate fat loss. Cryotherapy, in conjunction with dieting and exercise, can improve the speed at which humans lose weight. There are two main mechanisms by which our body responds to cold stress, both of which can increase metabolism.

1. Shivering Thermogenesis

2. Non-Shivering Thermogenesis

Shivering thermogenesis is your body’s response to the cold– shivering is a rapid, involuntary muscular contractions that produce heat as a byproduct. This involuntary movement helps warm the body to protect vital organs. Shivering thermogenesis burns a lot of calories and can be an important component of weight loss from cryotherapy. The caloric burn associated with shivering thermogenesis is similar to the effects of cardiovascular exercise—so it’s a great option for people who cannot (or will not :)) exercise.

Non-Shivering thermogenesis is the more interesting and promising path to weight loss. Before we get into how it works, it is important to understand what types of fat our bodies produce. There are two types of human fat:

1. White Adipose Tissue (WAT) or white fat
2. Brown Adipose Tissue (BAT) or brown fat

White fat is everyone’s most dreaded enemy because it tends to pile up around the waist, lower back, neck, and thighs, and is the most challenging to eliminate. White fat actually stores energy and is not metabolically active.

Brown fat is considered good fat because it is metabolically active and helps generate heat to keep our bodies warm in extreme cold. Brown fat has more mitochondria (the energy-producing part of our cells) than white fat. Studies have shown that BAT is inversely correlated with body fat percentage (Click Here to Read the Research Paper) and BMI (Click Here to Read the Research Paper). The easiest way to understand BAT is to think of it as: more BAT = the more fat your body will burn.

So we want more brown fat (BAT)….So how do we convert our white fat into brown fat?

One answer is whole-body cryotherapy, which uses cold temperatures. Click Here to Read the Research Paper

The process of non-shivering thermogenesis is partially regulated by the hormone and neurotransmitter norepinephrine. Studies have shown that cold exposure can increase norepinephrine release in the body by 500%!! Click Here to Read the Research Paper. Norepinephrine causes a release of uncoupling protein 1 (UCP1), which releases mitochondria (the energy-producing part of the cell). UCP1 increases metabolism by producing more mitochondria in the adipose tissue, causing a “browning effect”. This converts white fat to brown fat (BAT).

The conversion of white fat to brown fat is advantageous in so many ways—you lose the white fat deposits throughout your body (think thighs, abdomen, love handles, buttocks) and you passively burn more fat 24/7 through more metabolically active brown fat.

At ChillRx, we use a highly specific, medically formulated protocol to help our clients lose weight and fat. We collect data on all our clients and create the optimal weight- and fat-loss cryotherapy treatment using the dual concepts of shivering and non-shivering thermogenesis. Call or email us for more information about getting involved in our discounted weight- and fat-loss programs!