London - Most of the suggestions for losing weight require a certain amount of sacrifice or hardship, whether it is going without cake or spending more time on the treadmill.
But the latest possible slimming idea is even less likely to appeal – it requires getting so cold that you start shivering.
According to a study, shivering releases the same hormone, irisin, that muscles produce during rigorous exercise.
So rather than sweating it out in the gym, you can get the same calorie-burning effect from just feeling chilly.
Dr Francesco Celi and his team from the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases in America studied ten healthy male and female volunteers.
They found that the amount of irisin the body produces by shivering is at a similar level to that which is released through exercise.
Shivering speeds up the metabolism by turning weight-gaining “white fat” into calorie-burning “brown fat”.
Brown fat is a good type of fat which is stored around our backs and necks and helps us stay warm by burning up calories to generate heat.
Dr Celi said that the findings could represent a new strategy to treat obesity and may even help us embrace feeling cold: “Perhaps lowering the thermostat during the winter months could help both the budget and metabolism.”
The report was published in the journal Cell Metabolism. - Daily Mail