減肥新招——“低溫療法”

Host： The new dieting trend that could make you feel a little better about cold winter days. Right， the bone-chilling temperatures may actually help you lose weight by stimulating the body to burn extra calories.

Becky Wurley has more on what’s being called“Cold Dieting.” Good morning there， Becky. Oh， what are you doing now？

Becky： Good…Good morning. I know， this may look like torture， as I dip into an ice bath， but， some claim this could actually be 1）supercharging my 2）metabolism， and helping me burn—Whoof—extra calories. But does it work？

Cold dieting. There’s a rush of new theories， products and services that say， braving the cold， amongst other things， will burn extra calories.

Oh my gosh！

So， the KryoLife chamber. It uses air cooled by 3）nitrogen gas to create a dry -254 degree environment. Each session costs $90.00. The company says three minutes in here has several health benefits， including…

Joanna Fryben （CEO， KryoLife）： It’s a great supportive tool for weight loss.

Becky： Cold？ Yes. But weight loss？ Well， there have been studies that show lengthy exposure to cold can burn extra calories. But we couldn’t find any directly related to this much shorter exposure， like that in the KryoLife chamber.

But you may be asking， why not just brave the elements？ Here’s the problem. When does boosting your metabolism turn into 4）hypothermia or 5）frostbite or worse？ Yeah. Don’t try that at home.

A more moderate approach， the “cold shoulder，” ice packs slot into the vest. And the company says wearing it for three hours a day could burn up to 500 extra calories. I’m at San Francisco State University to first measure how many calories I burn normally.

Matt Lee （Exercise Physiology Professor）： You expended about 1.41 kcals per minute.

Becky： Now， 20 minutes wearing the “cold shoulder” vest.

Matt： Your caloric expenditure went up to 1.52 kcals per minute， seven or eight percent maybe， increase.

Becky： Do the math， and， in my case， it doesn’t add up to an extra 500 calories or the equivalent， a 25% increase. The makers of the cold shoulder say they performed a similar test and noted roughly the same calorie boost： 10 to 12%. But they stand by the weight-loss claims explaining a different test they did with eight users， who wore the “cold shoulder” twice a day and experienced an extra pound of fat loss over when they didn’t use it.

Bottom line on cold dieting？

Matt： I definitely would not recommend using this to replace physical activity and energy expenditure that you get via exercise.

Becky： Now， I…you don’t have to buy anything if you want to try cold dieting. The old ice bath is right here waiting for you. But， our lawyers want me to mention that you might wanna talk to your doctor before you try anything like this.

主持人：這個減肥新潮流也許會讓你對寒冬多一些好感，是的，凜冽刺骨的低溫可能真的有助于減肥，因為它能刺激身體燃燒多余的熱量。

貝基·沃爾利為我們帶來更多關于“低溫療法”的信息。早上好，貝基。噢，你在干嘛呢？

貝基：早……早上好，我知道，這看起來似乎很痛苦，我正在泡冰浴，有人說這樣可以加快新陳代謝，有助于消耗——呼——多余的熱量。但這真的有效嗎？

低溫療法。有一波新理論、新產品和新服務都聲稱，勇敢地挑戰寒冷也是一個消耗多余熱量的有效方法。

噢，天啊！

這就是 KryoLife冷氣室。它利用氮氣給空氣降溫，制造出零下254華氏度（約為零下159攝氏度）的干燥環境。每次收費90美元。該公司稱，在里面待上三分鐘對健康會有幾大好處，包括……

喬安娜·弗賴本（KryoLife公司總裁）：這個設備對減肥很有幫助。

貝基：冷？沒錯。但能減肥嗎？好吧，有研究表明，長時間處于寒冷環境中會增加熱量的消耗。至于在KryoLife冷氣室如此短時間的停留對減肥是否有效，我們并沒有找到直接相關的研究結果。

但你可能會問，直接忍受自然嚴寒不就可以了嗎？問題是，這種刺激新陳代謝的做法會在何時導致體溫過低，或長凍瘡，或者其他更糟糕的情況？所以，不要擅自在家嘗試哦。

另一種較為溫和的方式是穿“冰背心”，即在背心中插入冰袋。該公司稱，每天穿上三小時就能多消耗500卡路里。我現在在舊金山州立大學，先來測量一下我在正常情況下消耗多少卡路里。

馬特·李（運動生理學教授）：你每分鐘大約消耗1.41千卡熱量。