The ice hack diet, also called the alpine ice hack, has recently been touted by influencers as a quick-fix weight loss solution. A dietitian uncovers the truth about the ice hack diet and its claims.
Many videos contain strikingly similar claims: “This is a diet secret that’s been in the news but the videos keep getting taken down because it’s exposing the lies of the weight loss industry.” Then, influencers show before and after pictures of their mom, aunt or grandmother who has lost 60 to 80 pounds using the ice hack, all without diet or exercise.
What Is the Ice Hack for Weight Loss?
“The Alpine ice hack is not a specific diet,” explains Kimberly Gomer, a registered dietitian specializing in weight management in Miami. Instead, it involves drinking a glass of ice water and taking Alpilean, a dietary supplement. The product website claims that following this protocol raises your inner body temperature (the temperature of your inner organs and cells), boosting your metabolism and rapidly dissolving stubborn fat. On TikTok the products hashtag #icehack has received over 1 million views.
Does the Ice Hack Diet Work for Losing Weight?
The diet blames low inner body temperature as the cause of obesity, yet the entire premise is erroneous. While studies have explored the relationship between body temperature and body weight throughout the years, there is conflicting evidence.
Some researchers hypothesize that a low body temperature could predispose someone to obesity by what’s called a “thermogenic handicap,” or the difficulty of burning off calories efficiently.
Yet, the latest consensus is that obesity is not associated with a reduced core body temperature.The Alpilean website cites a Swiss study published in the International Journal of Obesity that actually conflicts with their premise. The study found that body temperature increases with weight, not decreases, as the company asserts.
What Are the Alpilean Supplement Ingredients?
The Alpilean supplement contains six plant ingredients that the company claims will increase inner body temperature and “ignite your calorie-burning engine.” The ingredients are supposedly from the Thangu Valley in the Himalayas. The alpine ice hack ingredients include:
* Dika nut (African mango seed).
* Golden algae (fucoxanthin).
* Drumstick tree or moringa leaf.
* Bigarade or bitter orange.
* Ginger root.
* Turmeric root.
Yet no evidence is provided to back up the temperature-raising claims of this “proprietary complex.”
How Much Does the Ice Hack Diet Cost?
The supplements are only sold on the company’s website, but there are multiple Alpilean websites that contain slightly different information. Various versions of Alpilean weight loss capsules are also sold on Amazon, and while some contain similar ingredients, others have a completely different formula.
Each bottle of Alpilean is $59 for a 30-day supply; a minimum of three to six months is recommended “so it has enough time to work throughout your entire body to target your inner body temperature, reach your desired weight, and lock it in for years into the future,” the website states. Taking the ice hack supplement for a full six months would cost you $354.
Should You Try the Ice Hack for Weight Loss?
He well-funded social media campaign to sell these supplements uses influencer testimonials rather than traditional advertising. Promotion also attempts to use a halo of science, including co-opting the prestige of Stanford University, but the claims are far from science-based.
“The ice hack is a gross extrapolation from our work,” Parsonnet says. “I do think temperature, weight and metabolism are linked, but I also think this relationship is extremely complicated and won’t be fixed by simple dietary supplements. I don’t see any reason to believe that eating ice or taking these supplements would cause weight loss.”
