Would YOU wear an Cooling Vest to burn 500 extra calories a day?
- It cools the body, forcing it to generate more heat to stay warm
- Professor Hayes claims it can burn 500 extra calories a day, or 1lb a week
- That's the equivalent of a Big Mac or half a tub of Ben & Jerry's ice cream
- This is because it activate's the body's brown or 'healthy fat' - found on the shoulders and back - which burns calories when cold
'My wife intends to use it for post-childbirth weight loss.'
The jacket is a waistcoat which drapes gel packs of ice over the shoulders and across the back.
It is kept in the freezer so it remains chilled - and should then be worn when a person is at a comfortable temperature and not exercising.
‘If you are sitting down at rest in a room (or your car, or whatever) that is at a comfortable temperature,’ Professor Hayes told MailOnline.
‘Then wearing The Cold Shoulder directly from the freezer, and with a shirt underneath, will extract heat from your body and cause you to burn extra calories in order to stay warm.’
The vest will not work if a person is in a hot environment, or if are exercising, as it will simply keep the user cool but not force their body to burn more calories to stay warm, he warned.
He claims the jacket isn't particularly uncomfortable to wear.
'The first time you wear it, yes, it'll feel cold,' he said.
'But you won’t shiver. After trying it a few times, you’ll hardly notice you’re wearing it.'
The comfort factor is the incentive for wearing the jacket and not turning off the heating, he said.
'If you turn off your heating in winter your whole body will be cold and you'll be uncomfortable. This way you won't be uncomfortable. It's a "cheat's way" of being cold,' he told MailOnline.
The jacket works using a phenomenon known as mild cold exposure, which Professor Hayes said has long been studied by scientists.
‘Any mild cold exposure causes your body to burn extra calories, whether it’s a cold day outside, air conditioning set too high, or your skin being in contact with a cold object,’ he said.
He added: ‘Scientists have been studying the effects of mild cold exposure for decades, and it’s a well documented fact that mild cold exposure induces calorie burn.'
The shoulders and back is the most comfortable place to put the ice because that’s where the body has the fewest nerve endings, he explained.
This area is also where most of the body’s brown fat, or brown adipose tissue is found.
Adults have a small amount of this brown or ‘good’ fat in this area.
This fat is different to the white fat, which is amassed from gorging on too many calories.
Brown fat is made of several fat droplets and large numbers of iron-containing mitochondria, which – along with blood vessels – is which is what gives the fat its brownish appearance.
It burns calories to generate heat, and burns calories when a person enters mild cold.
Therefore cooling the area of the body where brown fat is found – the back and shoulders – will force brown fat to burn more calories to generate heat, Professor Hayes said.
‘On the other hand, mild cold exposure is perfectly healthy, and has been studied by scientists for decades as a way to burn calories.’
His own clinical trials, of eight people, found wearing the Cold Shoulder vest twice a day for about an hour burns up to 500 calories more per day than a person would burn without it.
However, he warns the jacket is not a panacea to weight loss - it can simply aid fat burning for people who are reducing their calorie intake.
He said: 'The vest can burn up to 500 calories per day if used as directed, but you can easily nullify the effect by eating an extra 500 calories.
'So don't expect that you can continue to eat junk food, wear the vest, and lose weight. You can't.'
And while it might seem like an extreme way to lose weight, he argues it’s no more wacky than other methods.
He said: ‘Think of all the other crazy things people do in order to try to lose excess fat. Starving themselves?
‘Eating zero-calorie clay just to feel full, which carries a risk of arsenic poising? Exhausting themselves in the gym?
Ingesting questionable supplements that, if they work at all, have side effects like insomnia or over‐stimulation?
‘How about wearing a corset just to appear thinner? Drug injections? Liposuction? Freezing fat cells? Gastro‐intestinal surgery?’
He concluded: ‘Considering these options, wearing a cool, calorie-burning vest is pretty tame in comparison.’
The jacket costs $160 and will be available in sizes XS to XXXL.
Lose weight without exercise – NASA Scientist and Professor Dr. Wayne Hayes is interviewed on ABC News.
Weight loss via mild cold exposure has been featured in
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