Lower your body temperature to lose weight

Can you lose weight—and a lot of it—without going to the gym or eating less?  New research thinks you could, and it’s all about lowering your body temperature.

We burn more calories if we’re freezing—so could we trick the body to start producing more heat, and so burn off fat?

The secret is to reduce levels of two amino acids, methionine and cysteine, which are found in animal produce such as meat, eggs and dairy.  They act as the body’s temperature controllers and they keep us warm.

But if their levels drop, the body thinks it’s cold and so starts to burn more fat, say researchers at the University of Southern Denmark.  The process of the body burning calories to generate heat is known as thermogenesis, and it could be the key to losing weight without eating less or exercising.

Instead, the thermogenetic diet reduces animal protein and focuses on more plant-based foods—and it seems to work as well as constantly exposing the body to cold conditions of around 5 degrees C (41 degrees F).

They tested the diet on two groups of mice: both groups ate the same quantity of food, but one was more plant-based and contained less methionine and cysteine.  In just seven days, the thermogenesis levels of the plant group had risen by around 20 percent, and they were already losing more weight.

The calorie burning mainly happened in beige fat, a type of fat stored just under the which is activated during cold exposure.

So it seems that the best diet for weight is a vegan or vegetarian one, the researchers concluded.

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