UC Irvine scientist develops Cold Shoulder vest as a chilly weight loss tool

IRVINE, Calif. (KABC) -- Olympian Michael Phelps averaged eating 12,000 calories a day and never gained weight. But surprisingly it wasn't just because of how much he exercised.

"Michael Phelps would need to... do about 10 hours of continuous butterfly stroke to burn 12,000 calories a day," said UC Irvine science professor Wayne Hayes.

He says the answer lies in the chilly temperature of the pool. That, and the high amount of "good" brown fat, helped him become a calorie burning machine.

Those two elements and 50 years of research motivated Hayes to design The Cold Shoulder. It's an ice vest to help the rest of us lose weight by getting chilly.

"Your body has to maintain 98.6 to be healthy, so your body will go to whatever measures are necessary to keep you at 98.6," said Hayes.

So if you're wearing a cold vest...

"It induces comfortable mild cold exposure and our clinical trials suggest that it burns up to 500 calories a day, if you wear it twice a day for an hour each," Hayes said.

And there's another benefit: As the body burns more calories to heat you up, it's also increasing brown fat cells.

"Brown fat burns calories as opposed to white fat, which just stores calories," said Hayes.

Oren Levy claims he exercised a lot, but he reduced body fat from 15 to 12 percent after participating in the UCI vest study.

"I was a little skeptical. You know, it's like wear a vest lose weight, you know, sure," Levy joked.

The professor even made his wife try it too.

"I didn't track my weight but I used a tape measure and I lost an inch around my ribs in two weeks," said Jocelyn Hayes.

No jacket, no problem. You can start your day with an icy shower, you can turn your thermostat off or down and you can also take an ocean swim. But be prepared to be a bit uncomfortable.

Hayes recounted a fellow researcher who did just that.

"He would drink a gallon of ice water every day. He would take cold baths and cold showers," said Hayes. "It was painful, but he basically tripled his rate of weight loss."

The Cold Shoulder vest is currently being sold for $159.99.