If you keep your caloric consumption the same, the greater you boost your metabolism, the faster you’ll lose weight. But the catch is, you’ll also feel hungrier. If you eat more to compensate for the hunger, then the outcome is a wash. If you’re not hungry, then that may be a sign your metabolism is slowing down. So in terms of losing weight, feeling hungry is a good thing, but how much hunger can you take? Be forewarned that with the diet program suggested in this blog, you will always be slightly hungry: before you eat, after you eat, and before you sleep.

If you’d like to lose weight even faster, you can incorporate cardio workouts. There’s also another trick that will give your metabolism an extra boost; try taking cold showers. Ever recall feeling famished after spending an entire day at a water park? Did you feel that hungry after running a marathon or a long day hiking…probably not to the same extent.

As a reference, Michael Phelps claims to burn about 12,000 calories a day at the peak of his training regime. A person burns 2,300 calories running a marathon. Does Michael Phelps really perform the cardio equivalent of more than 5 marathons a day or is something else going on here? Here are some calculations (please feel free to post comments if you see any mistakes)…

By Googling some values, the average surface area of someone 5’10” in height at 155lbs is approximately 1.87 square meters. If standing in a cold shower can cool the body down to a depth of 1/8″ then we can determine the volume of “meat” affected. Human “meat” contains roughly 57% water, so we can determine the volume of water affected. Since it takes 0.12 calories to heat one fluid ounce by one degree Celcius, then your body would burn 12.5 calories for every degree you bring the outside 1/8″ of skin below body temperature. If you were to stand in room temperature water for say 10 minutes, then based on the above calculations, you would burn 150 calories once your body heats your skin back to 37 degrees Celcius. This would be calories burned to heat your skin back up to body temperature and does not include the calories burned while you are in the shower.

So imagine now how many calories your body needs to burn to maintain its body temperature if you’re spending the entire day in a pool of moving water.