5 Unconventional Ways to Burn More Calories
If you don’t always have the time to burn calories at the gym, don’t let this stop you from pursuing your goal. There are other effective ways to do it. Take these 5 methods for example. They may seem unconventional at first, but once you see the actual results, you’ll never want to stop doing them.
Chew some gum
This may seem strange but according to several studies, chewing gum helps you burn around 11 calories per hour. It may not seem much, but given that it is a rather effortless activity, I’d say it’s a win. Multiply it by 4 hours a day and you end up burning around 300 calories per week. Sounds better now, right?
To make sure you do get only benefits from trying this method, opt for sugar-free gum. It not only prevents calories but also unwanted cavities.
Laugh a little more
You know laughing is the best medicine, right? It turns out, it really helps with mental and physical health, as well as the immune system, heart health and memory. On top of that, it also promotes calorie burning.
Laughing for 10 to 15 minutes translates into a metabolic rate boost of up to 10-20% and around 40 calories burned per day. This means that throughout a year, you could LOL your way out of three to four pounds.
Obviously, laughter is no exercise replacement. However, a good laughing session does exercise various muscle groups in our body, in a natural way, like the diaphragm and abdominal muscles. So, laugh yourself slim!
Expose yourself to cold
Most of us use cold weather as an excuse not to workout but cold exposure is surprisingly a very effective way to burn more calories. It turns out shivering helps your body to warm up, burning calories while doing so. Around 100 calories in only 15 minutes to be more precise.
In more scientific terms, we all have white fat and brown fat in our bodies. When exposed to cold, white fat, which is usually harder to get rid of, starts behaving line brown fat and burns off along with it to increase the production of heat.
Easy ways to stimulate this type of calorie burning is to walk in cold weather, take cold showers or lower the thermostat temperature in your room. Though, not to the point it becomes a habitat for penguins!
Don’t stop fidgeting
I bet you were told to stop fidgeting at least one time in your life. While some may regard it as annoying and useless, science begs to differ. Turns out people that constantly fidget burn 300 calories extra than those sitting still.
So, tap you pen, shake your leg, tap your foot, play with your hair…anything that can make a contribution to the amount of calories you burn throughout the day. In the course of a year, this constant motion may help you shed around 30-40 pounds. I bet you’re feeling an uncontrollable urge to wiggle your leg right now!
Do your chores
Nobody likes doing household chores and that’s a fact. But what if I told you cleaning your house could also help you clear your body of some unwanted pounds? Studies revealed that an average 150-pound person can burn up to 200 calories per hour just by doing minor housework.
Cleaning the bathroom for half an hour equals to walking the treadmill for 30 minutes. Vacuuming? 115 calories burned in 30 minutes. Washing the dishes? Another 100 calories. And there are plenty of other spring cleaning activities where that came from, which can skyrocket the number of calories you burn while keeping your house pristine.
To rack up your calorie deficit even more, you can also incorporate some exercises such as lunges or squats into your cleaning routine.
