So I picked up Timothy Ferriss's "The 4-Hour Body" at the library today, and one of the most amazing claims he makes is that drinking ice water--particularly 2 glasses before breakfast--and putting an ice pack on your neck area for 30 minutes in the evening can bring about a dramatic difference in your weight loss.

We've all seen the headlines recently about keeping the thermostat low helps you burn calories keeping your body heat up, but I haven't heard this before. Has anyone else tried this?

I'll breaking out my ice pack tonight and drinking ice water tomorrow morning, just in case.

ive never heard of the headlines that say keeping the heat down burns alot of calories...i can see how it might burn a few but i'm not sure if it burns enough to make a difference...sounds like the same concept with the ice water and ice packs, make your body cold so it burns calories to heat itself up

in my own personal experience, i grew up in northern alaska where winters dropped to 60 below zero on a regular basis and our home was only heated by a woodstove....i remember my stuffed animals frosting to the inside of our walls at night so it was pretty cold inside at night...i waited outside for the bus at temps down to 50 below zero...and i was fat the whole time...i was a chubby child, an overweight teenager and am still struggling to lose weight so in my experience, a lifetime of being cold hasnt produced much benefit

I've heard that about ice water, but not about the ice packs. Interesting. In my anthropology courses, we talked about indigenous groups and the different body types/diets depending on the climate. While people in colder climates generally tend to be able to eat much higher calorie diets, they also tend to be a bit...stout. This, of course, is talking more about people who don't necessarily have the conveniences of heating and cooling systems where they live, and in general tend to have a moderate to high activity level.

So I guess what I'm saying is... it's possible.

Well, I've been sucking down ice water all summer (and oftentimes a class before breakfast), and I haven't noticed an increase in weight loss. It sounds bogus.

...Maybe?

I do know what works better than that, though. Eating less than I used to.

It fairly negligible amounts for being in a colder room, so not really worth the higher electric bill, but the water does work. It was on the news a while back down here. Your body will burn about 60 calories trying to heat the water up to body temp. It's also estimated that you can burn about 100 calories a day by shaking/twitching your leg while you're sitting.