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I recently over heard a discussion about how mixing ice in your protein shake will make it much harder to burn off the fat in your body. Something about the fact that ice freezes the fat.

Is this just a myth or true?

I would imagine that the more ice and cold water you consume the more calories you burn and more fat.

Which one is true?

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  • It most likely a myth. Plus your body burns calories just to keep your body temperature at 98.6. If it sounds silly it most likely is, like the myth where cold water boils quicker than hot water. You probably will burn an extra Calorie or two.
    – dkroy
    Sep 15, 2011 at 20:43
  • Off topic per new FAQ
    – Baarn
    Sep 21, 2012 at 15:19

2 Answers 2

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Adding ice to a protein shake could temporarily change the state of certain fats (i.e. from liquid to solid), but this does not change how hard it is to burn off the fat once it's in your body. Firstly, by the time fats get absorbed into the body from the digestive tract, they have likely been heated to body temperature. Secondly, regardless of the state of fat (solid, liquid, etc.), the energy required to burn it off is 9 kcal/gram.

As VPeric mentioned above, the answer to this question provides evidence against the idea that consuming cold water significantly increases caloric expenditure.

The one problem I could see with drinking an ice cold protein shake is that hot and cold drinks delay gastric emptying (slow your stomach's emptying into the intestines), which could cause problems; for example, if you drink a protein shake before working out, having it sit around in your stomach for longer could cause discomfort and the nutrients would not be available to your muscles as quickly as with a more neutral-temperature drink.

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This is just broscience... you know: "If you do not take your whey right after training, you are going straight catabolic".

Just eat whole foods, train hard, sleep well and take your protein shake, with ice or otherwise, to complement your calorie intake

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