Cooler temperatures lead to weight loss, a new study now suggests. Put another way, science now shows turning your home's central heating down will not only lower your energy bill, but likely the size of your pants too.

The findings are based on a 10-year study by scientists from the Netherlands who found cooler ambient temperatures affect body metabolism.

When human bodies are exposed to cooler temps on a consistent basis, they apparently shift into a fat-burning mode that regulates internal temps, keeping one from becoming overly cold. At least with young and middle-aged individuals, non-shivering heat production in response to feeling cold can account for up to 30 percent of the body's energy use, according to the scientists.

Likewise, warm and cozy homes and offices may be actually encourage bodies to pack on, or, at least hold onto, more pounds. Lower temperatures, then, can notably affect the number of calories burned off instead of being stored as fat.

"Since most of us are exposed to indoor conditions 90 percent of the time, it is worth exploring health aspects of ambient temperatures," said lead researcher Wouter van Marken Lichtenbelt, an associate professor in the health, medicine and life sciences department at Maastricht University. "What would it mean if we let our bodies work again to control body temperature? We hypothesize that the thermal environment affects human health and more specifically that frequent mild cold exposure can significantly affect our energy expenditure over sustained time periods."

Another experiment in Japan showed a decrease in body fat after study subjects spent two hours a day at 17 degrees Celsius, or 62.6 degrees Fahrenheit, for six weeks, said the Dutch scientists.

The team in Maastricht also discovered study participants grew accustomed to cooler environs over time. After six hours a day in the cold for about 10 days, levels of heat-generating brown adipose tissue, or, brown fat, in the body showed signs of increasing, as participants generally became more comfortable and shivered less.

Brown fat, discovered in adults about five years ago after scientists had long believed the functional tissue only existed in infants, is different from the white fat most often associated with obesity.

Brown fat is involved in a body's non-shivering thermogenesis, a process of heat production that occurs when you feel cold, but aren't yet shivering.

Studies with animals have shown that brown fat cells, which create body heat by burning calories, are activated in non-shivering thermogenesis.

In the journal Trends In Endocrinology & Metabolism, researchers wrote that "indoor temperature in most buildings is regulated to minimize the percentage of people dissatisfied. This results in relatively high indoor temperatures in wintertime."

By not being exposed to a varied ambient temperature, "whole populations may be prone to develop diseases like obesity. In addition, people become vulnerable to sudden changes in ambient temperature," the study said.