Ask a stupid question: can you lose weight drinking cold water?

[martin_wisse]

So a co-worker remarked that drinking cold water made you lose weight, as you burned calories heating it up to body temperature when you drink it. Myself, I said I couldn't see it, as just the normal loss of heat in your mouth and elsewhere will heat it up anyway. Does anybody got any idea either way

Comments

[vatine]

Well, I don't know to what extent there's "heat loss" from the stomach, but heating 1 l of water 1°C takes 4.2 kJ (1 kcal, I believe). Normal daily energy consumption is on the tune of 3000 kcal, so if we assume fridge-temp water (at, say, 8°C) and constrast it with room temperature water (at, say, 18°C), each litre of fridge-water consumes 10 kcal more than the room-tenp water. Compared to the normal daily caloric intake, one'd need to drink an AWFUL lot of fridge-temp water to make much of a dent in the energy budget. I'd guess somewhere between 10 and 30 litres, risking over-watering and osmotic imbalance. One is probably better off to go sit inside the fridge for a couple of hours each day.

So, yes, it may increase energy consumption, but compared to how much humans stuff down themselves, it's so marginal as to probably be ignorable.

[akicif]

One is probably better off to go sit inside the fridge for a couple of hours each day
And then ruin it all with a nice hot cup of tea!

[drelmo]

The cost of heating up water to body temp is negligible compared to the cost of this space station, I mean, human basal metabolism.