In 2010, when I was a young and impressionable 12-year old, one of my friends told me about a side benefit of chewing gum besides keeping your breath feeling fresh. The secret was that you could also actually lose weight while chewing gum.
When you chew gum, you are constantly moving your jaw which involves energy. In an article written by Jon Williams, he writes that, “[it is] the muscular exertion involved in chewing [which] directly burns calories. Make it sugarless gum and you are burning calories without taking any calories in.” You tend not to think about this because chewing gum is such a natural thing for people to do. Who knew you did not need to go to the gym to burn calories.
In a study done by the Mayo Clinic they concluded that, “chewing gum can burn around 11 calories per hour – this may not seem like a lot but simply chewing gum every day for 4 hours would equal roughly 308 calories burned at the end of the week and 1,232 every month or roughly 1/3 of a pound.” This is astonishing because some people do not even notice that they are burning calories, because they are enjoying chomping on their piece of gum.
Chewing gum is not only good for burning calories but has also helps you control hunger. At Louisiana State University, researchers conducted a study where they used “115 people who regularly chewed gum and fed them lunch. They measured their cravings before and after lunch. They found that those subjects, who chewed gum three times hourly after lunch, ate fewer high-calorie snacks. The chewers also reported decreased feelings of hunger and cravings for sweet foods.”
In conclusion, chewing gum will not just help you crack down on those extra calories but will also help control your hunger. So next time you are chewing gum, remember it is more than something to chew on and blow bubbles with.