Partial Myth: Drinking Cold Water Burns More Calories Than Warm Water
This is part of the world of medical myths but also has some basis in reality. If someone eats snow, for instance, to get water in their system. This can be a problem because you have to use extra calories to melt down the cold snow to form it into a liquid. Yet already liquid water won’t be a problem. Bodies burn calories via basal metabolic rate, physical activity, and digestion. Drinking cold water over warm water is not part of this. It is possible the myth began because our bodies do expend energy as we warm up. Thus, if our bodies work to raise our temperature then cold water should too, right? It should be noted that we do use about 8 calories to warm up, yet cold water can also bring down our body temperature too. Therefore, it shouldn’t be assumed that cold water will cause us to burn a ton of extra calories.