Does Cold Weather Exercising Burn More Calories? Make an Appointment Ask a Question Search Conditions National Jewish Health Cardiologist, Andrew Freeman, MD, explains why exercising in cold weather does burn more calories, and offers a few suggestions. Related Videos 3 Keys to a Healthy Heart Heart Attack Symptoms in Women What is Chest Pain? 4 Ways to Prevent Heart Disease What Is a Heart Murmur? What Causes a Heart Attack? Symptoms of a Weak Heart Breath Test or Heart Rate? Angina = Heart Attack How to Prevent a Heart Attack when Shoveling Snow How to Lower Blood Pressure with Simple Changes Ask a National Jewish Health Cardiologist if You Should Exercise in Bad Weather Intensive Cardiac Rehab Has Amazing Outcomes 4 Simple Ways to Be the Healthiest You How to Eat Healthy During the Holidays Lifestyle Medicine: Improve Health, Food, Sleep, Exercise & Stress Management What Has Love Got to Do with Your Health? Walking Is Nature’s Best Medicine Walk With A Doc Transforms Lives Why Do We Connect Love With The Heart? Truth: You Can Reverse Heart Disease, Derrick Did How to Be Heart-Healthy All Day Long Transcript So there’s some data out there that supports that cold weather exercising and particularly cold weather swimming exercising may burn more calories. When it’s cold out, your body has to burn more calories to keep its basal temperature up. So exercising when it’s cold may be a good thing, but it also can precipitate asthma, it can precipitate something called Raynaud’s, where peoples circulation in their fingers is not good and it also can increase the risk of vasospasm, which is when the arteries can spasm when it’s really cold which can create chest pain for some people. So make sure you are bundled up and you are warm, you check with your doctor first, and then get out there, because remember your body doesn’t care if it’s a hundred degrees or zero degrees, fitness is important every single day in your life, so don’t let the weather stand in your way. Visit njhealth.org/cardiology for more information. Want to use this on your website? Fill out the content usage request form and then copy this code: