Losing weight is hard. There are a ton of diets and exercise plans that can help those who want to lose weight, but there is no magic pill.
In fact, though losing weight may be difficult, it is actually pretty simple. Burn more calories and take less in. It takes a deficit of 3,500 calories to lose one pound.
But are there easy ways to burn those calories? Can those calories be burned without spending even more time in the gym? Yes and yes!
Here are five ways to help burn calories (and none of them include extra minutes on the treadmill).
1) Chew gum.
Chewing gum can burn 11 calories every 12 minutes in a 150-pound woman. It also sends a signal to the brain that one is finished eating. And it freshens one's breath!
2) Laugh out loud.
Watch a funny show. Reminisce about good times with a girlfriend. Go see a comedy show. Just laugh. Vanderbilt University conducted a study which found the average adult burns 1.3 calories every minute from laughing.
3) Get gardening.
Give that green thumb some exercise and get out to the garden. Weed, plant, dig in the dirt to shed some calories. A 150-pound woman will burn 113 calories in 25 minutes while gardening, and will hopefully end up with some beautiful vegetation.
4) Cook.
While eating food does add more calories to one's body, cooking that food actually burns some calories. All the cutting, chopping, grinding, and sautéing will burn 102 calories in 45 minutes. Go a step further and make a healthy meal from locally-sourced Farmer's Market ingredients.
5. Stand up.
Standing is something that is often just not done in most Americans' lives. But that does not have to be the case. Step out of your sedentary life, and choose to stand up while waiting for the dentist or for a bus to come. Standing burns 33 percent more calories than sitting!
The idea is that to lose weight, you need to incorporate calorie-burning activities into your everyday life. Sure, going to the gym is great, but burning calories throughout the day is even better.
Dancing, walking, playing frisbee, and even having sex burns hundreds of calories. Just don't go and put those calories back on!
Sources:
Redbookmag.com. Web. 11 June 2014.
http://www.redbookmag.com/health-wellness/advice/ways-to-burn-calories
Health.com. Web. "20 ways to torch 200 calories."
http://www.health.com/health/gallery/0,,20395219,00.html
Reviewed June 12, 2014
by Michele Blacksberg RN
Edited by Jody Smith