The ice hack diet isn’t about living off of ice or eating only alpine foods. It’s a weight loss strategy based on the idea that cold exposure speeds metabolism and helps burn calories.
Your metabolism is the rate at which your body uses and stores energy at the cellular and systemic (whole-body) levels. Speeding up your metabolism is often associated with weight loss. Burning more energy than you consume, after all, is the mantra of most weight management programs.
Many gimmicks and fad diets claim to boost your metabolism, but research suggests cold exposure like that in certain variations of the ice hack diet may actually work. However, how it translates into pounds lost remains unknown, and individual results may vary.
The ice hack diet is a weight loss framework that focuses on cooling your body temperature in order to burn more calories. At its simplest, it involves adding ice to your diet, drinking cold liquids like smoothies, and consuming only cold foods.
If you’re looking to take the ice hack diet to the extreme, food choices can be paired with cold temperature exposure, like ice baths, cold showers, and the application of ice packs throughout the day.
The goal of the ice hack diet is to make yourself cold, either from the inside out with food or from the outside in with environmental exposure.
Being cold puts your body in what’s known as cold-induced thermogenesis, a physiological state where your metabolism naturally increases as a way of keeping you warm.
Supporters of the ice hack diet believe this increase in metabolism, paired with standard caloric deficits, can speed up weight loss.
What’s included in the ice hack diet recipe?
The ice hack diet, in its fad version, primarily promotes the consumption of cold beverages, foods, and ice. Anything goes, as long as it is cold and within your caloric allowance. Between meals and snacks, you’re allowed as much ice as you want.
As a relatively new diet, there is no research proving the ice hack diet,…
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