Regularly Wearing a Cooling Vest Might Help You Lose Body Fat, According to a New Study

Participants who were overweight or living with obesity wore the accessories for two hours every morning for six weeks and lost an average of two pounds. The researchers suspect showering or swimming in frigid water could have similar effects

May 20, 2026 9:11 a.m.

the feet of a person standing on a scale with a measuring tape on the floor — The researchers say this is one of the first studies looking at the effects of cold exposure over a prolonged period of time in people who are overweight or have obesity. Image by freepik

Ice baths, frigid showers and cold plunges seem to be all over social media, with people claiming that exposure to chilly water has seemingly endless health benefits.

Proposed gains include boosting the immune system, increasing libido, kickstarting the metabolism, improving circulation and even making new friends, said James Mercer, a biologist at the Arctic University of Norway, to Healthline’s Nancy Schimelpfening in 2023.

Growing scientific evidence hints that some of these supposed benefits are real. Now, preliminary research presented in May at the European Congress on Obesity adds to the conversation after finding that consistent cold exposure via cooling vests might help people lose body fat. The results suggest that the accessories could be an easy weight-loss lifestyle strategy that people could incorporate with traditional approaches like exercising and eating healthy.

“This is one of the first studies looking at the impact of cold exposure over a prolonged period of time, involving people with overweight and obesity,” study co-author Mariëtte Boon, an obesity physician at Leiden University Medical Center in the Netherlands, said at the conference, reports the Guardian’s Anna Bawden.

The study involved 47 adults who were overweight or living with obesity in the Netherlands. About half of them wore a cooling vest and waist wrap for two hours every morning for six weeks. The cold-exposure participants shed an average of 2 pounds over the experiment period, while those in the control group gained an average of 1.3 pounds, the researchers found.

Shot of a cyclist wearing an orange cooling vest, which has small pockets for ice — Cooling vests are somewhat common. Athletes, construction workers and other people wear them. Con Chronis / Getty Images

How does this happen? Study co-author Helen Budge, a biologist at the University of Nottingham School of Medicine in England, explained that “daily cold exposure activates brown fat, which uses body fat stores to produce heat,” per the Guardian.

“It is possible that wearing a cooling vest trains brown fat to be more active and has a healthy effect on lipids, glucose and inflammation in the body. All those things are preventative in cardiovascular disease,” she added.

Analysis revealed that much of the weight loss in the cold-exposure group compared with the control group did come from a reduction in body fat, and lean mass—made of components like muscle and bone—remained relatively unchanged. That’s important because dropping pounds often comes with muscle loss.

Cold vests are probably a more practical at-home approach than having to find a corner for a bathtub full of ice water. Budge said that the clothing is not uncomfortable, and that people in the construction industry already make use of them to keep cool, reports the London Times’ Eleanor Hayward.

Additionally, the team suspects that cold showers and cold swimming could produce similar results, and they’re running another trial to see whether a 90-second chilly shower each morning could also aid weight loss, per the outlet.

Quick fact: What happens when you first enter frigid water?

After plunging into chilly water, the sudden drop in body temperature triggers a reaction called cold shock. It activates the body’s fight-or-flight response.

Still, in a 2022 paper, Mercer, who did not participate in the recent research, and colleagues reviewed 104 studies on the health effects of cold-water immersion and concluded that while evidence suggested the practice might bring benefits, additional well-controlled studies were needed for more conclusive results. More recently, a 2025 study found that people exposed to 30 minutes of cold water ate more right after than participants who sat in room-temperature water. That means the post-ice bath meal might lead a person to consume a calorie amount similar to that they had just burned during their ice bath.

“Ultimately, it’s still going to come down to energy expenditure. Calories in, calories out,” Andrew Tracey, fitness director at Men’s Health U.K., told the outlet in 2025. “Cold showers might give you some pep to attack your diet and training with more vigor—great. But don’t rely on them as [a] tool for direct fat burning.”

You Might Also Like

Get the latest stories in your inbox every weekday.