30-Day Cold Shower Challenge

13

Replies

  • tcw295
    tcw295 Posts: 2 Member
    So I figured I'd take the time to comment since nobody else has actually tried this. Yes, I too read the article about cold showers and brown fat and whatever when it came out, and said what the hell. I made an X-effect style habit list and opted to do 30 seconds every morning after waking up. Next day I ended up getting out of bed at 2 am because I was so nervous. I went into the shower, put my stopwatch outside and set for 30 seconds, and turned on the water. It was quite a shock, got my adrenaline going, and I had to restrain from yelling. I managed to struggle and turn around a few times before the alarm went off and I stepped out of the shower. Surprisingly enough, my body was NUMB....and then the warmth kicked in. I freaking felt GREAT. I dressed and drove to work, and managed to ride that high for about 4 hours before turning back to normal.

    So to all you debbie downers: this is totally a thing. The rest of the week the feeling wasn't quite as intense, like chasing a high I'll never achieve again, so I didn't opt to finish my habit chart....but I always end my showers with a blast of cold now. Numbs me up and leaves me refresh and internally warm. Try it sometime!
  • Virgiree21
    Virgiree21 Posts: 71 Member
    tcw295 wrote: »
    So I figured I'd take the time to comment since nobody else has actually tried this. Yes, I too read the article about cold showers and brown fat and whatever when it came out, and said what the hell. I made an X-effect style habit list and opted to do 30 seconds every morning after waking up. Next day I ended up getting out of bed at 2 am because I was so nervous. I went into the shower, put my stopwatch outside and set for 30 seconds, and turned on the water. It was quite a shock, got my adrenaline going, and I had to restrain from yelling. I managed to struggle and turn around a few times before the alarm went off and I stepped out of the shower. Surprisingly enough, my body was NUMB....and then the warmth kicked in. I freaking felt GREAT. I dressed and drove to work, and managed to ride that high for about 4 hours before turning back to normal.

    So to all you debbie downers: this is totally a thing. The rest of the week the feeling wasn't quite as intense, like chasing a high I'll never achieve again, so I didn't opt to finish my habit chart....but I always end my showers with a blast of cold now. Numbs me up and leaves me refresh and internally warm. Try it sometime!

    That's awesome! That's how I felt today. Although I didn't blast the cold water on me. I slowly adjusted the temp which wasn't so bad. I will start 30 seconds in the extremely cold. I stayed about 1 minute or more in the different levels of cold if that makes since. I'm at cold and I'll stand in it for about a minute or more. Adjust it a little colder. Stand in it for a min and so on until I get to the coldest temp

  • Virgiree21
    Virgiree21 Posts: 71 Member
    Sense*
  • mumblemagic
    mumblemagic Posts: 1,090 Member
    To quote another poster on another thread... "I have a facepalm concussion"
  • Merkavar
    Merkavar Posts: 3,082 Member
    Virgiree21 wrote: »
    tcw295 wrote: »
    So I figured I'd take the time to comment since nobody else has actually tried this. Yes, I too read the article about cold showers and brown fat and whatever when it came out, and said what the hell. I made an X-effect style habit list and opted to do 30 seconds every morning after waking up. Next day I ended up getting out of bed at 2 am because I was so nervous. I went into the shower, put my stopwatch outside and set for 30 seconds, and turned on the water. It was quite a shock, got my adrenaline going, and I had to restrain from yelling. I managed to struggle and turn around a few times before the alarm went off and I stepped out of the shower. Surprisingly enough, my body was NUMB....and then the warmth kicked in. I freaking felt GREAT. I dressed and drove to work, and managed to ride that high for about 4 hours before turning back to normal.

    So to all you debbie downers: this is totally a thing. The rest of the week the feeling wasn't quite as intense, like chasing a high I'll never achieve again, so I didn't opt to finish my habit chart....but I always end my showers with a blast of cold now. Numbs me up and leaves me refresh and internally warm. Try it sometime!

    I will start 30 seconds in the extremely cold.

    Extreme cold? Does tap water get that cold? Is it on the verge of freezing?

    I haven't ever had cold water out of the tap that I would call extreme cold :D

  • Virgiree21
    Virgiree21 Posts: 71 Member
    Merkavar wrote: »
    Virgiree21 wrote: »
    tcw295 wrote: »
    So I figured I'd take the time to comment since nobody else has actually tried this. Yes, I too read the article about cold showers and brown fat and whatever when it came out, and said what the hell. I made an X-effect style habit list and opted to do 30 seconds every morning after waking up. Next day I ended up getting out of bed at 2 am because I was so nervous. I went into the shower, put my stopwatch outside and set for 30 seconds, and turned on the water. It was quite a shock, got my adrenaline going, and I had to restrain from yelling. I managed to struggle and turn around a few times before the alarm went off and I stepped out of the shower. Surprisingly enough, my body was NUMB....and then the warmth kicked in. I freaking felt GREAT. I dressed and drove to work, and managed to ride that high for about 4 hours before turning back to normal.

    So to all you debbie downers: this is totally a thing. The rest of the week the feeling wasn't quite as intense, like chasing a high I'll never achieve again, so I didn't opt to finish my habit chart....but I always end my showers with a blast of cold now. Numbs me up and leaves me refresh and internally warm. Try it sometime!

    I will start 30 seconds in the extremely cold.

    Extreme cold? Does tap water get that cold? Is it on the verge of freezing?

    I haven't ever had cold water out of the tap that I would call extreme cold :D

    My water gets so cold I swear it was ice water lol. It also gets extremely hot where it will burn the skin off your bones. Okay maybe not that hot but I've gotten pretty bad burns while washing the dishes.
  • auddii
    auddii Posts: 15,357 Member
    tcw295 wrote: »
    So I figured I'd take the time to comment since nobody else has actually tried this. Yes, I too read the article about cold showers and brown fat and whatever when it came out, and said what the hell. I made an X-effect style habit list and opted to do 30 seconds every morning after waking up. Next day I ended up getting out of bed at 2 am because I was so nervous. I went into the shower, put my stopwatch outside and set for 30 seconds, and turned on the water. It was quite a shock, got my adrenaline going, and I had to restrain from yelling. I managed to struggle and turn around a few times before the alarm went off and I stepped out of the shower. Surprisingly enough, my body was NUMB....and then the warmth kicked in. I freaking felt GREAT. I dressed and drove to work, and managed to ride that high for about 4 hours before turning back to normal.

    So to all you debbie downers: this is totally a thing. The rest of the week the feeling wasn't quite as intense, like chasing a high I'll never achieve again, so I didn't opt to finish my habit chart....but I always end my showers with a blast of cold now. Numbs me up and leaves me refresh and internally warm. Try it sometime!

    And how much weight have you lost that isn't attributable to a calorie deficit?
  • Virgiree21
    Virgiree21 Posts: 71 Member
    auddii wrote: »
    tcw295 wrote: »
    So I figured I'd take the time to comment since nobody else has actually tried this. Yes, I too read the article about cold showers and brown fat and whatever when it came out, and said what the hell. I made an X-effect style habit list and opted to do 30 seconds every morning after waking up. Next day I ended up getting out of bed at 2 am because I was so nervous. I went into the shower, put my stopwatch outside and set for 30 seconds, and turned on the water. It was quite a shock, got my adrenaline going, and I had to restrain from yelling. I managed to struggle and turn around a few times before the alarm went off and I stepped out of the shower. Surprisingly enough, my body was NUMB....and then the warmth kicked in. I freaking felt GREAT. I dressed and drove to work, and managed to ride that high for about 4 hours before turning back to normal.

    So to all you debbie downers: this is totally a thing. The rest of the week the feeling wasn't quite as intense, like chasing a high I'll never achieve again, so I didn't opt to finish my habit chart....but I always end my showers with a blast of cold now. Numbs me up and leaves me refresh and internally warm. Try it sometime!

    And how much weight have you lost that isn't attributable to a calorie deficit?

    Maybe I shouldn't have put that part about weight loss. That definitely wasn't my main focus but I figured I had to put so thing about weight loss since this is a weight loss forum. Who cares about 9lbs a year? You live and learn.
  • auzziecawth66
    auzziecawth66 Posts: 476 Member
    edited March 2015
    I did it last summer and I actually came to enjoy it. Not as bad as you think it's gonna be. (Stopped during the cold canadian winter tho since I have enough troubles keeping warm then) also there's an app for that!! Lol.

    (Eta: I did it for the skin problems I was having not for any weight loss reasons and it def did help with that lol )
  • kindrabbit
    kindrabbit Posts: 837 Member
    I'm not sure about the weight loss / fat loss benefit but I do believe its good for aching muscles as well as your skin and hair. I think it works in the same way as a plunge pool after being in a steam room or sauna.
  • haysavam
    haysavam Posts: 74 Member
    I'll try it! I'm down to try anything (almost)!!!

    Did those articles say anything about using a sauna after?
  • SLLRunner
    SLLRunner Posts: 12,942 Member
    edited March 2015
    .

  • Lounmoun
    Lounmoun Posts: 8,423 Member
    I regularly take cold showers and baths in the summer... no difference in weight loss or how I feel after a warm shower except my body is cooler. It feels nice in summer.
  • SergeantSausage
    SergeantSausage Posts: 1,673 Member
    What
    The
    Actual
    Foxtrot,

    Over?
  • Merkavar
    Merkavar Posts: 3,082 Member
    Instead of a 3min cold shower, what about 4 hours in the pool?thats like 80 days worth of showers.

    Weigh your self before and after.
  • azulvioleta6
    azulvioleta6 Posts: 4,195 Member
    This is called cryotherapy. It supposedly activates your brown fat.

    I could swear that I heard something about this on NPR recently, but I can't find the story. For it to work, you need to go much longer than 30 seconds.
  • klnor88
    klnor88 Posts: 28 Member
    I thought this thread was going to be about something else, rofl.
  • EvgeniZyntx
    EvgeniZyntx Posts: 24,208 Member
    Virgiree21 wrote: »
    nicsflyingcircus wrote: »
    Cool shower if I've been out in the sweltering Alabama summer heat doing something physical. Warm every other time in the summer, hot in the winter.
    Mr_Bad_Example wrote: »
    Virgiree21 wrote: »
    A 2009 study found that exposure to extreme cold temperatures activated brown fat in 23 and 24 participants by a 15-fold increase, meaning someone could lose up to nine pounds in a year if they kept this practice up.

    What study might that be, deary? Also, I don't believe that many showers are going to have a temperature setting that dips into the extreme cold that would probably be necessary for this to occur. But hey, at least now you can ditch that pesky hot water heater of yours.

    Have no idea lol. I just put in the weight loss benefit I read about because well.. This is a weight loss thread lol. 9lbs a year isn't much anyways. I'm really more interested in the other benefits. Definitely not giving up hot showers. I actually really like extremely hot showers.( as hot as my body can take) I also turn the shower on really hot few minutes before I get in and when I walk in the bathroom it's like a steam room. I love that shi... But I meant end with a cold shower not take a cold one.

    One of your links claiming fat loss has a link to this study http://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMoa0810780

    It doesn't mention showers. Or fat loss. Reference fail.

  • Dragn77
    Dragn77 Posts: 810 Member
    I'll take a cold shower in the dead of summer, because the humidity can really suck, so it feels really good.

    But then, in the dead of summer, the water isnt actually *that* cold...feels crisp compared to the weather, but in reality, its probably slightly cooler than room temperature.

    And...thats about as far as I'll go with that.
  • tcatcarson
    tcatcarson Posts: 227 Member
    EWJLang wrote: »
    I.....no.

    No no no.

    Even if it works, which I doubt.

    Still no.

    Didn't you read the bit about toxins though?
  • Aemely
    Aemely Posts: 694 Member
    edited March 2015
    Well water gets VERY, painfully cold. City water, probably not as much, unless it's winter! The coldest water I ever showered in turned my skin purple and hurt like hell (it was at a beach where you wash off sand). There was low-level screaming involved. :joy:
  • landfish
    landfish Posts: 255 Member
    I did the occasional cold shower out of necessity when I was in the military. But I hate cold water and it would have to make me poop gold bars before I would think about it.

    Actually, no. That wouldn't do it. Pooping gold bars sounds incredibly painful.
  • SlinkySpencer
    SlinkySpencer Posts: 139 Member
    My dorm community bathrooms didn't have hot water for about the entire month of January one year...Yeah, I had plenty of painfully cold, and very fast, showers. The fat loss part of this challenge doesn't sound likely (unless you're burning calories shivering your butt off). BUT cold or lukewarm showers definitely help your hair and skin far more than hot showers.
  • efrensgirl2015
    efrensgirl2015 Posts: 480 Member
    serafinelaveaux wrote: »
    I did cold showers for about 3 months when my water heater broke. At the end of the 3 months I was still fat. And cold. And being cold meant tense muscles, which resulted in more pain.

    But hey good luck with that!

    That's hilarious!
  • Virgiree21
    Virgiree21 Posts: 71 Member
    Today marks 30 days! Still ending my showers colder and don't think I'll ever end it any other way. :)
  • PeachyPlum
    PeachyPlum Posts: 1,243 Member
    herrspoons wrote: »
    I used to use ice baths to recover from rugby games and training. They sucked.

    Oh, so RUGBY is where my husband learned that *kitten*.

    One day I was really sore after a long run I'd taken the night before. My husband offered to draw me a bath, which was super sweet. I was really looking forward to it.

    Until he called down the hall that it was ready and I walked into the bathroom to discover the entire ice bin was floating in the tub. :anguished:
  • PeachyPlum
    PeachyPlum Posts: 1,243 Member
    Virgiree21 wrote: »
    I ate a pie the other day that had close to 50 grams of fat.

    Ok....
  • jonnie256
    jonnie256 Posts: 169 Member
    Virgiree21 wrote: »
    DebzNuDa wrote: »
    Even if it worked.....I HATE cold showers. Count me out, sorry.

    Who likes cold showers? That's why it's a challenge! :)

    I only like freezing cold showers after I workout.
  • jonnie256
    jonnie256 Posts: 169 Member
    I_Will_End_You wrote: »
    Out. Nothing ruins my day like a cold shower. Anyone in my family who uses all of the hot water before I take a shower will feel my unbridled wrath.

    Strong post to user name ratio. ;)
  • crazyjerseygirl
    crazyjerseygirl Posts: 1,252 Member
    I take cold showers usually starting in May. Really wakes one up!
    I've never found and hidden benefits though excepting that I shower much faster!

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