10 Unexpected Weight Loss Tricks

It has been predicted that by 2030, the global weight loss industry will be worth over $400 billion. With a world population of 8 billion, that means each individual is worth about $50. It’s safe to say that there is a lot of money to be made from weight loss, and people are constantly trying to find ways to improve their chances of recovery.

We all know that watching calories and exercising are the standard and reliable ways to lose weight, but people still like to find an edge when they can. Some unique or unpredictable way to help shed those extra pounds. Many methods are not scientifically proven and some are downright scams, but there are a few weird tricks that can help you burn an extra calorie or two if you're interested.

10. Ice water technically contains negative calories.

One idea that people have found appealing over the years is negative calorie foods. For a long time, people thought of something like celery as a negative calorie food. This means that if you eat it, you burn more calories in the process of eating and digesting it, and you get the output from the food itself. Unfortunately for celery lovers, this is not true. There are no foods with any nutritional value that are negative calories. That doesn’t mean there aren’t any negative calories out there.

Ice water is the only food you can swallow that is more or less low in calories. Water naturally has no calories, so you already have zero calories, but if it's ice cold, your body actually has to use energy to heat it up to body temperature, making it negative overall.

Is ice water a great way to lose weight? Not exactly. Your body will heat the water to 98.6° or whatever your body temperature is, and you'll burn about 8 calories to do so. That's fewer calories than you'd get from eating a potato chip.

9. There is a way to cook rice that significantly reduces its calorie content.

Almost half of the world's population eats rice. It's a staple grain and one of the most popular foods in history. It's also considered quite healthy, but as a carbohydrate, it's also something you need to be careful about consuming in large quantities due to the potential calories.

A cup of cooked white rice contains just over 200 calories. As part of a larger meal, it can add up to a significant amount of calories, especially if eaten multiple times a day, as it may be in some parts of the world. But given all this, you can reduce the calories in rice solely by how you cook it.

A cup of cooked white rice contains just over 200 calories. As part of a larger meal, it can add up to a significant amount of calories, especially if it’s eaten several times a day, as it may be in some parts of the world. But given all this, you can reduce the calories in rice solely by how you cook it.

A 2015 study found that if you cook rice with a little coconut oil and then let it cool, you can cut calories by as much as 60% . That’s because the oil penetrates the starch molecules in the rice and makes them resistant to digestive enzymes. As the rice cools, the amylose, which is the soluble part of the starch, is removed and strong hydrogen bonds form between the molecules. All this means is that your body can no longer digest those starches, meaning you can absorb the carbohydrates and their associated calories.

If you let the rice cool in the refrigerator for 10 hours, you'll get the best results overall, and you can still reheat it to eat when it's done.

8. Donating blood burns 650 calories

Now keep in mind that no one is suggesting this as a viable and certainly not sustainable method of losing weight. It can be quite dangerous if you push the envelope. However, it is worth noting that donating blood burns a lot of calories. Compared to most weight loss methods, it burns a lot.

Donating blood just once can burn up to 650 calories. That's the equivalent of walking 11 km if you weigh 90 kg. The reason donating blood is such an effective way to burn calories is because your body has to re-synthesize all those proteins and cells to replace the blood you lost.

Most places have pretty strict rules about how often you can donate blood, with many requiring at least 56 days between donations, so it's by no means a foolproof weight loss tool.

7. Hot peppers and capsaicin boost metabolism and lead to weight loss

The active ingredient in hot peppers and other spicy foods of this kind is called capsaicin. It has become a new thing on the internet over the last decade or two, as people post videos of themselves eating increasingly spicy foods and peppers just for fun.

However, not everyone knows that capsaicin actually has health benefits. One of them is that it can cause a significant increase in metabolism. In clinical studies, patients given capsaicin experienced a significant increase in weight loss compared to those given a placebo. Not only does capsaicin speed up your metabolism, which helps you burn fat faster, but it also acts as an appetite suppressant, so you’re less likely to want to eat more, which can also help with weight loss.

6. A fidget can burn 350 calories a day

Would you call yourself a fidget? You might want to start if you don’t already. People who fidget have a natural advantage when it comes to losing weight. And of course, it makes sense when you think about it, because they’re engaging in physical activity. It may seem like a small thing, but if you’ve ever watched someone who’s naturally fidgety, you’ll notice that they can keep it up for long periods of time. Kids who have certain attention deficit issues can fidget for the entire class when they’re at school.

Research has shown that people who fidget a lot can burn up to 350 calories a day doing so. This is because they have trouble sitting still and will naturally move more often. Over the course of a year, this can result in a loss of 25 to 40 pounds.

5. Laughter increases your heart rate and burns calories

We’ve all heard that laughter is the best medicine, but we probably weren’t laughing when we found ourselves in the hospital with the flu or a broken arm. While it may not cure many illnesses or help heal injuries, that doesn’t mean laughter can’t be good for your overall health. Laughter can increase your heart rate and burn calories as a result. Laughing for 15 minutes is equivalent to walking about 1 km. That can add up to 2 kg per year, just from laughter.

Laughter doesn't need to be maintained, so don't worry about forcing yourself to be the joke. It's cumulative, so if you watch a few comedies or laugh with friends, you'll probably be fine.

4. Pregnant woman's urine has been promoted by a number of doctors as a weight loss method

There are many proven ways to lose weight, most of which have to do with how you eat during physical activity. There are also a million and one weight-loss quackery methods that probably don’t work at all. And somewhere in the middle is a small gray area where anecdotal evidence suggests that something works, although not much scientific research has been used to prove it one way or another. And that’s where we are now with urine as a weight-loss tool.

The hormone hCG can be found in the urine of pregnant women, and in the early 2010s it became the go-to weight-loss drug, at least for those who could afford a $1,000 dose. This was despite the FDA warning that it had not been proven to reduce appetite or aid weight loss.

The drug still had to be prescribed by doctors, so at least there was a sense of legitimacy behind it. Its popularity came from doctors anecdotally claiming to have seen significant weight loss in many patients who used it.

The flip side of the coin is that patients taking the hormone were also on a 500 calorie per day diet, which could certainly explain the significant weight loss without having to resort to urine. Reports from the time indicated that patients on diet and hormones could lose up to 1 kg per day.

Why would this even work? The idea is that the hormone, as it is produced during pregnancy, tricks your body into thinking it is pregnant and as a result increases your metabolism.

3. You burn twice as many calories walking on sand as you do on solid ground.

Not all walking is created equal. Just because your feet are moving and touching the ground doesn't mean you're getting the same workout as someone else doing the same thing. How you walk has a lot to do with how effective it is as a weight loss method.

If you want to get the most out of your walk, take a page of trashy personal ads and go for a walk on the beach. Walking on sand burns twice as many calories as walking on the sidewalk.

Because sand isn't as hard as pavement, your leg muscles have to work harder to stay balanced on it. We've all been on a walk in the sand and noticed that you slip, sink, and generally find it harder to move because of how uneven it is. But that unevenness makes it a much better workout method if your goal is to burn calories.

Studies conducted on patients with diabetes who walked on sand as an exercise showed significant reductions in body mass index, total body fat and improved quality of life compared to those who did not.

2. Hiking burns more calories than simply walking the same distance.

In a person's quest to lose weight, there are countless options of activities that you can engage in. Some people want to go to the gym and use exercise machines, some people prefer to go out into nature where you can run, swim, ride a bike and so on.

Obviously, some types of physical activity will be more intense and burn more calories than others. But it can be surprising to learn how much more effective one can be compared to another. It’s similar to the effect of walking on sand, but for slightly different reasons.

A 1 km walk can burn about 100 calories. However, if you decide to walk the same distance, you will burn about twice as many calories. Also, if you decide to wear a backpack loaded with gear and add a little more weight, you can burn about 500 calories. All this for the same distance.

The main reason for the increased number of calories burned is that hiking takes place on uneven terrain. You have to use more muscles and exert more effort because you will be walking up and down steeper slopes than if you were just walking on the sidewalk.

1. Improving your posture can help you achieve weight loss

It seems that poor posture is one of the most serious health problems that affects people who don’t even realize that it’s a problem. As many as 80% Americans suffer from back problems, and posture is one of the main reasons. But it’s more than just back problems. Posture also affects your weight.

Bad posture means that all of your muscles are not being used properly. When you slouch, your muscles are not working at full capacity, and you tend to develop more fat deposits to balance you out because you are not in the ideal position.

Improved posture helps you work more efficiently and means that any other exercises you do will be more beneficial. If you exercise with good posture, you will get more out of it.