"Eating ice should, by the logic of this diet, also provide some level of satiety, if only so far as it physically fills space in the stomach and mouth."
At some point beyond [a] liter, too much ice can be a problem. In the case of one obese person who attempted to eat seven quarts of ice per day, [Dr. Brian] Weiner says, "Not surprisingly, this person suffered an uncomfortable feeling of coldness." In his professional opinion, that much ice per day would, for most people, be a "toxic dose." He recommends avoiding eating much more than the Slurpee-tested one liter of ice daily, "to avoid hypothermia or unusual cooling of the body. ... Some organs do not work optimally when the body temperature drops too much."...
Physics writer Andrew Jones offers more skeptical calculations as to the caloric benefits of the ice diet, determining that eating a kilogram of ice would burn 117 calories. "To reach the 3,500 calories required to lose a pound of weight, it would be necessary to consume about 30 kilograms [66 pounds] of ice," Jones writes. "Not exactly the most efficient diet plan." That means, if you ate a liter of ice every day, you would lose about a pound of weight every month, all other things in life being equal. That's not bad. And all other things wouldn't be equal. Everything in your life would be different because you would be eating a liter of ice every day.
That's in The Atlantic. You might remember
my writing about ice and weight loss last January:
I've long thought that to burn more calories you ought to drink more ice water (which would include tap water on a day like today).... [I]sn't it obvious that your body is going to have to expend calories to warm up anything cold you put in. Now, I'm distracted by the thought of a lucrative business manufacturing smooth metal devices that fit comfortably into various bodily orifices. You chill them to some perfectly comfortably cool, safe temperature, then insert them until they warm up. Calories burned....
I'm concerned that there's a blubber-up reaction to cold in the long term. Fat protects you from the cold. Take a look at the walrus. Nature did not evolve us to freeze to death (or to starve from over-burning our fat reserves). Our ancestors survived cold and privation to give us bodies that make us drift toward resemblance to the walrus.
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Bike commuters are a lot slower in winter owing to having to heat air they breathe, and that diverts a lot of their aerobic capacity.
The response is to slow down, which means less air to warm as well as less energy biking, per unit time.
Rather than losing weight.
Eating ice and snow is a significant factor in deaths from hypothermia. One well known story of a mother stranded in a blizzard in Oregon described how she ate ice to avoid dehydration while she nursed her baby,. The baby survived but she died.
Our ancestors survived cold and privation to give us bodies that make us drift toward resemblance to the walrus.
A cold, stainless steel dildo in the ass would explain that "goo goo goo joob" thing too.
For the same reason, it's better to eat hard-packed ice cream rather than soft-serve. Your body expends more energy melting the hard-packed ice cream through the phase change to liquid.
Your mileage may vary.
Nearly twenty years ago in a book I was reading about strength training and weight loss (http://www.amazon.com/Living-Longer-Stronger-6-Week-Enhance/dp/0399519009/ref=la_B000APAG9K_1_4?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1401366136&sr=1-4) the author noted that people following his regimen should sip water throughout the day (adding up to nearly two liters). He also noted that the water should be ice cold as calories would be spent warming the cold water to body temp. I've seen this noted elsewhere as 'too good to be true', but there was a study in Germany that found that drinking ice cold water did raise metabolism (http://www.burnthefatinnercircle.com/members/543.cfm )
Ice is murder on teeth. So you can eat ice all you want, but eventually you'll crack a tooth and need a crown.
What do Michelle and Sound Science say?
BTW, according to Al et al, this will be a luxury in another year or so.
This post leaves me cold.
I've long thought that to burn more calories you ought to drink more ice water (which would include tap water on a day like today). [I]sn't it obvious that your body is going to have to expend calories to warm up anything cold you put in.
Eating ice would be much more efficient, since it takes many more calories to melt ice than to heat the same volume of ice water to body temperature. To lose a pound of fat you'd have to drink 25 gallons of ice water.
Bike commuters are a lot slower in winter owing to having to heat air they breathe, and that diverts a lot of their aerobic capacity.
The response is to slow down, which means less air to warm as well as less energy biking, per unit time.
Nonsense. The energy required to heat the air you breathe is trivial, and when you exercise the main problem is getting rid of excess heat anyway. Strenuous exercise when it's 0 °F is fine; strenuous exercise at 98.6 °F can kill you.
Bike commuters are a lot slower in winter owing to having to heat air they breathe, and that diverts a lot of their aerobic capacity.
Maybe.
You have a lot of bulkier clothing on, upping your wind resistance, and the air is about 10% denser. I'd say those two things are more important than having to heat the air you breathe.
I always believed that biting your fingernails, and toenails if you can manage that, should be part of every weight loss regimen.
I always believed that biting your fingernails, and toenails if you can manage that, should be part of every weight loss regimen.
This is well covered in the book "4 Hour Body" by Tim Ferris. His plan is based on his self experimentation, his observations of swimmers, and measurement of his body fat level and composition. His plan has you drinking ice water at key points, and using an ice pack on the back of your neck before bed time. The burning calories reason is noted, but also the conversion of white body fat to brown body fat. Link: http://fourhourbody.com/
Nonsense. The energy required to heat the air you breathe is trivial, and when you exercise the main problem is getting rid of excess heat anyway. Strenuous exercise when it's 0 °F is fine; strenuous exercise at 98.6 °F can kill you.
No, you heat the air to body temperature, which takes a hundred watts or so at the rate you have to do it.
Fast bike riding is about 200w, or 1/3 horsepower.
If 100w is all you normally commute with, you slow down a lot.
Brimley is the best. "Brim" is great. I will never, as long as air fills the lungs, forget him as the Postmaster General in Seinfeld saying "by God" when talking to Kramer.
That was one of the better "by Gods" ever by Goded.
Because people who live in the cold are known to be thinner.
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