28 Weird Ways To Burn Calories.

These days, lots of people are trying to get into shape and cut calories where they can.

Whether you’re on that train or not, we dug up some completely bizarre ways you can be burning calories every day! Some of these are actually the opposite of healthy, but it’s amusing to think that someone went through all of the calculations to figure out how many calories things will burn.

Maybe those fidget spinner companies are actually onto something. Fidgetting can be bouncing your leg, tapping your fingers, even playing with your ring. Whatever it is, it works.

In studies, researchers found that people who fidget burn 5 to 6 times more calories than people who don’t. That’s HUGE – that averages out to about 350 more calories per day.

It turns out that you can burn calories, just by being cold!

In one study, 10 lean young men were regularly exposed to a temperature of 62F (17C) for two hours. Because of the cold exposure, they burned (on average) an additional 164 calories per day!

While cold’s effects are still being studied, the results seem to say that it works.

Some ways you could use this are slightly lowering the temperature in your home, taking cold showers, and walking outside in cold weather.

Researchers at the University of California, San Diego found that donating one pint of blood burned 650 calories, on average. Weird, right?

This actually makes sense because when you donate blood, your body uses more energy to replace the red blood cells and other blood components that were lost in the donation.

Another cool fact: research suggests that donating blood may offer several health benefits, including lowering inflammatory markers, increasing antioxidant activity, and reducing the risk of heart disease.

Just remember that you can only donate every 8 weeks or so.

Drinking water has been shown to temporarily boost metabolism in studies of normal and overweight adults and children. And as we know, metabolism helps burn calories and fat.

If you combine this with our knowledge of the cold in the last point, then we can affirm that cold water does an even better job!

Researchers reported that your body burns more calories simply warming up the water to your body temperature. How much difference does cold water make, compared to luke-warm water? Turns out, cold water is about 30% more efficient! So go grab a cold glass of some H2O.

Chewing gum has been shown to make you feel more full, and reduce the amount of snacks that you eat.

It also burns about 11 calories per hour, depending on how often you’re chewing.

Laughter is the best medicine!

Laughing for 10 minutes can burn between 20 and 40 calories.

In one study, 45 couples watched movies that were either humorous or serious. When they laughed during the funny movies, their metabolic rate increased by 1020%.

While this isn’t huge, research has also confirmed that laughter may improve many aspects of mental and physical health, including memory, immunity and arterial function.

Bottom line: laughing is good for you, and can even burn some calories.

Singing in the shower can burn 10-20 calories per song, depending on the volume and pitch of your voice.

For 30 minutes of active sex, you can burn about 200 calories.

Banging your head against the wall burns around 150 calories per hour. I’d hate to be the guy who did that research.

Brushing your teeth for 3 minutes burns 10 calories.

For a half hour of pushing a shopping cart up and down isles, you’ll burn over 100 calories! Even better: this number increases with the more items you put in your cart.

One hour sitting in front of the TV burns 65 calories. So instead of hitting the gym, you can just binge some Netflix! Because it’s basically a workout, right? Right guys?

Smoking a cigarette burns 10 calories. (However, this is totally unhealthy and not a recommended workout plan.)

Dancing can burn 50-60 calories per 10 minutes! This also depends on the type of dancing, which could go under or over that amount.

Hugging for one hour can burn 70 calories.

Grab a buddy, throw on some Netflix, and cuddle on the couch. That’s 135 calories you’re burning in an hour! This is the kind of workout class I want to be in.

If you whip your hair back and forth (see: Willow Smith’s song) you can burn about 50 calories per song, depending on how crazy you go.

Kissing for 1 minute can burn 4 calories, depending on how deep it is.

If you walk on hard dirt, you’ll burn 7% more calories than walking on pavement!

When you eat celery, you actually burn more calories by chewing it than you gain by eating it.

So while you’re cuddling and watching Netflix, bust out the bowl of celery for snacks to pump up the intensity of your “workout”.

Walking your dog for 30 minutes will burn 100 calories. If it’s on hard dirt, you’ll burn an extra 7.

If you really want to tone those glutes, try dragging your cat down the street on its leash to add that extra weight.

Missing a night of sleep causes your body to burn an extra 161 calories. (Not a recommended weight loss program).

If you text constantly, you’ll burn about 40 calories per hour.

Watching a horror movie burns the same amount of calories as a 30 minute walk.

A 150lb woman will burn about 99 in 35 minutes of pool-playing.

You can burn 113 calories in 25 minutes – even if you lose.

Eating a medium-sized apple burns 60 calories. That’s way more than drinking a glass of apple juice.

Standing burns 33% more calories than sitting. So next time you’re waiting, opt to stand rather than sit.

Comments may have been edited for clarity.