Lose Weight by Chewing gum

Results published in the New England Journal of Medicine last week show that sugar-free gum chewers can burn off a considerable amount of weight each year. Researchers from the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota, hooked seven students up to a machine and measured the content of exhaled air, which allowed them to measure the amount of energy expended by each individual.

The first measurement was taken during a 30-minute rest period (without chewing gum) and the average energy expenditure was 58 kilocalories an hour.

Next, subjects were given sugar-free gum and instructed to chew 100 times per minute for a period of 12 minutes. The measurement after the chewing activity resulted in an elevation in the metabolic rate, which burned an average of 70 kilocalories an hour.

The results from this study indicate that chewing sugar-free gum at 100 chews per minute will raise the metabolic rate by approximately 20%, and someone chewing gum all-day can burn off an equivalent of 11 pounds of a year.