Small Changes Saturday: Source WebMD Rent a Funny Movie The small change: Laugh for 10 minutes. Watch your favorite sitcom or invite friends over to view a funny video, as Buchowski had people do in a study that measured calories burned during hearty laughter. Compared with another session, in which the group was stupefied by viewing films of sheep grazing in the countryside, watching comedies used up 10 to 20 percent more calories. The big gains: Think of it as jogging on the sofa: Laughing tenses your abdominal muscles, makes your heart beat faster, and speeds your breathing so you take in more oxygen. All those things burn energy, says Buchowski, who calculates that you could burn off between 10 and 40 calories for every 10 to 15 minutes of levity a day. That means in a year, you could become four pounds slimmer just by watching TV!
Posted on: Sat, 15 Feb 2014 11:00:00 +0000