Drinking ice-cold water = elevated metabolism??

[DanielBishop]

I heard this from a guy online.... I'm not sure if he knows ANYTHING about bodybuilding nutrition, but he was under the impression that drinking ice-cold water will raise your metabolism because your body needs to "heat" the water and thus expends some energy.

I've never heard anything like that, and it doesn't compute with my logic.... I think anything ice-cold would only be heated via convection, and heat would be lost from blood in the capillaries around the mouth, oesophegus and stomach.... this would LOWER your core temperature, and thus have the OPPOSITE effect of thermogenic foods like chilli.

Also, I'm thinking that your body.... as a homeostatic response, might try to divert blood AWAY from the cold area in your stomach, to try and minimise heat loss.... and with less blood going to your working organs, that sounds like it would also drop your metabolic rate.

Any ideas on this? Sounds like a crock to me, but I thought I'd make sure before I go correcting him.....

 

[Cuts]

I've heard this before. It will increase your BMR--albeit very, very slightly. I'd imagine you could force yourself to drink nothing but ice cold water all day long, and you might burn an extra 50 cals. Is that really worth the inconvenience?

I've also read various articles entitled "100 ways to burn 100 calories" that include activities such as tapping your foot 2000 times, but I don't do that either.

 

[MrMakaveli]

Suprisingly a gallon of ice-cold water burns a pretty good amount of calories, there was a pretty good website posted about this a while back if you can find it.

 

[DanielBishop]

So are you sure that drinking it ice-cold makes the difference to metabolism? Room temperature water wouldn't have the same effect?

*really doesn't wanna be proven wrong by this guy*

 

[Cuts]

Suprisingly a gallon of ice-cold water burns a pretty good amount of calories

How many?

(beginning to prepare ice cubes...)

 

[Ceebs]

Bleh. If it is true, I'd rather diet a little longer and not have to deal with brain-freeze from drinking icy liquid.

 

[HANSEL]

http://newton.dep.anl.gov/askasci/zoo00/zoo00094.htm

http://groups.google.com/groups?q=C...-8&[email protected]&rnum=4

thats all i found on the web

 

[gmanlax7]

my chemistry/ bio teacher said drinking cold water all day is only the calorie burning equivalent of walking up a flight of stairs

 

[gonelifting]

my chemistry/ bio teacher said drinking cold water all day is only the calorie burning equivalent of walking up a flight of stairs

That`s funny because I have to walk up a looong flight of stairs to get my icewater. So by the time I get up there I don`t really need to drink it, do I?

Then I stand there with the water in my hand, wondering if I should drink or not. By the time I decide, It`s warm and It does`nt make sense anymore. So I go back down stairs.

I`ve lost 15 pounds doing this.

 

[mbridge]

Even if you assume that your body would directly use calories to "heat" the water, heating a liter of water by 1 degree celsius is the equivalent of 1 food calorie. So we are talking about 50 calories max. There's no way it's anywhere near that either.

 

[DanielBishop]

Thanks for those links, Hansel.... I appreciate it very much. Karma for you.

Thanks for your imput everyone.... I think we've concluded that you don't burn a significant amount of calories or raise your BMR significantly by drinking ice-water, unless it's in copius quantities.

That should be ammunition enough for me to win the argument.

I'm going back in!!!.....

 

[Cuts]

heating a liter of water by 1 degree celsius is the equivalent of 1 food calorie.

hmmm... u sure it's not 1 cal = unit of energy required to heat 1 ml of water 1 degree C?

 

[Millie]

there have been threads about this before and i believe it came out that you would burn a maximum of 100 cals a day additionally if you only drank ice cold water.

like Ceebs, i would rather diet longer or do 10 more minutes of cardio instead of freezing my brain like that.

 

[LaviathanX]

There was a post about it and someone had figured it all out. It's not 100 calories a day. They figured it by drinking a gallon of 32 degree water per day, and it wasn't close to 100 calories per day. 50 sounds more like it but that might even be an overstatement. But to answer your question, yes, it does require energy to heat the water, therefore calories are lost.

 

[krayziefresh]

100 ways to burn a hundred calories

Hey whats this 100 ways to burn 100 calories thing you speak of? damn I kinda got a mild case of ADD, so I pretty much tap my foot 2000 times without noticing daily anyways...whats some of this other stuff that is on there?

 

[Cuts]

Re: 100 ways to burn a hundred calories

Hey whats this 100 ways to burn 100 calories thing you speak of? damn I kinda got a mild case of ADD, so I pretty much tap my foot 2000 times without noticing daily anyways...whats some of this other stuff that is on there?

A few that I remember...

• play "thumb war" very intensively for 20 minutes with a partner (no "snakes in the grass")
• scratch a butt for 30 minutes
• twist both nipples for 2 hours

O.k. fine I made those up (the foot tapping one is real though). But there was an article like this... I believe I saw it in Men's Health a couple years ago... maybe you could search for it on their website.

 

[Vortexx]

If u can't drink that whole gallon of icewater a day you can always try icewater enemas....

Right now i am sitting in front of my computer, tapping my feet and drinking a glass of liquid nitrogen, I begin to feel cut already...

 

[Big Jax]

cuts - you're partially right...1 calorie is the unit of energy required to heat one ml of water 1 degree C...however, food energy is measured in KiloCalories, or Calories with a capital C, one of which equals 1000 calories.

 

[gymrat]

That`s funny because I have to walk up a looong flight of stairs to get my icewater. So by the time I get up there I don`t really need to drink it, do I?

Then I stand there with the water in my hand, wondering if I should drink or not. By the time I decide, It`s warm and It does`nt make sense anymore. So I go back down stairs.

I`ve lost 15 pounds doing this.

lol