You’re standing outside waiting for a bus in the freezing cold, shivering and wondering if there’s anything good about your situation. Maybe being cold helps you lose weight? After all, it makes sense, as your body needs to work harder in cold weather to maintain its core temperature. But exactly how many calories do you burn by being cold? Keep reading to find out.

Like a lot of aspects of biology, the answer to the question above is counter intuitive. Although it makes sense on the surface that one should burn more calories in the cold, studies have indicated the exact opposite. It is true that you burn more calories in cold weather whilst in a resting state. However, if you start exercising and increasing your heart rate, your body’s temperature rises just as easily in cold weather as in warm weather, without requiring extra energy. In fact, the body uses a lot more energy in warm weather to cool the body to its nominal temperature after exercise, than in cold weather. So you actually burn more calories exercising in a warm environment.

So remember, if you stand still or sit outside, you will burn more calories the colder it is. But if you plan on doing some cardio, opt for the indoors in winter, it will benefit you more than being outside – not to mention that you are putting yourself at risk of catching a cold exercising outdoors in winter.

They’re small, addictive and shaped like an underwater mine, but how many calories are there in a Ferrero Rocher? Chances are if you’re reading this, you don’t really want to know because you can’t stop eating them. In any case, here are the cold, hard facts.

Ferrero Rocher chocolates contain 220 calories for every serving size – considered to be 3 pieces, weighing in at 38 grams. This equates to 579 calories per 100g – an almost unrivalled amount, even in the world of desserts. So if you are the type of snack enthusiast who kids themselves into believing ‘just one more won’t hurt’, remember that one more will cost you 73 calories.

Ferrero chocolates consist of 42% fat. This means that 12 Rocher pieces account for 100% of your daily recommended fat intake. The one good thing to be said about the fat content is that there are no trans fats in Ferrero Rocher, so your cholesterol won’t take as much of a beating as with other desserts.

More good news: the sodium content of Ferrero Rocher is quite low, with one serving size of 3 pieces providing just 1% of your daily recommended allowance (calculated for a 2000 calorie per day diet).

After a bout of laughter you may feel exhausted, as if you’ve spent a lot of energy during physical exercise. According to a Stanford University study, this is actually the case – laughing burns calories, and not an insignificant amount either. So how many calories do you burn by laughing? Apparently laughing 200 times burns the equivalent of 10 minutes on a rowing machine. The study does not specify the speed with which you operate the rowing machine, or the difficulty level of the magnetic resistance, so this is a rough approximation at best. However, using some commonly accepted values, we can say that 10 minutes on a rowing machine burns around 250 calories for a man of average weight. We can further assume that we laugh with a frequency of about 3 laughs per second. This all equates to a burn rate of about 160 calories per hour for laughing.

So it seems that the question ‘how many calories can you burn from laughing’ actually has a semi sensible answer. Of course, the above value will vary greatly, depending on your style of laughing. People who guffaw will expend much more energy than those who chortle. Also, unless you have mental health problems, you will probably not laugh for an hour a day, so the amount burnt by laughing will not add a great amount to your daily burnt calories.

How many calories you burn laughing, smiling and expressing other positive emotions will have effects on your body, other than burning calories. Laughter will decrease blood pressure and increase the oxygen content of your blood, boosting your energy levels. You also relax your muscles and release endorphins through laughter, so you benefit greatly from being happier, even if the raw calorie burn rate isn’t that high.

Working out with a punching bag is a good way to get the sweat flowing and the heart racing, but how many calories do you burn by hitting a punching bag? Keep reading to find out.

A person weighing 150 pounds will burn about 360 kcal/hour hitting a punching bag. At 175, you can expect to burn around 435 calories. At 200 pounds, you are looking at a burn rate of 510 kcal per hour. Of course, how many calories you burn by hitting a heavy bag depends on the vigor with which you perform the exercise, and the range of the motions used.

If you are planning to work out with a punching bag, make sure to practice the full set of punches and kicks, in order to work all your major muscle groups and gain maximum mobility. Start with straight forward jabs, remembering to keep your striking shoulder high, and your guarding hand close to your face – preferably around the ear area.

Also make sure that the punch lands with your index and middle finger knuckles. Depending on the martial art in question, some trainers will advise a power distribution of 50-50 between these two knuckles, or as high as 95-5 in favor of the index finger knuckle. This is due to the fact that the bone connecting your index finger knuckles to your arms extend all the way until the elbow, giving it maximum sturdiness. Your other knuckles connect to your wrist or middle arm, giving them much less stability. If you happen to land a punch on the wrong knuckle, you are quite likely to break a bone. This is a mistake that boxers often make, as they are used to having their hands covered with thick gloves, meaning they do not usually need to pay attention to the orientation of their knuckles.

As mentioned in our previous article about carrots, there are a lot of rumors circulating about the existence of so called negative calorie foods. This is what inspires questions such as ‘how many calories do you burn by eating an apple‘. It has been shown that even the very lowest energy vegetables, such as celery, provide 90% more energy than they require for metabolic processing. Apples are considerably higher in energy than celery, so we can tell straight away that you will not burn any calories by consuming them.

A small apple provides about 77 calories – based on a weight of 149 grams. A medium apple that weighs 182 g gives you about 95 kcal. A large apple, weighing in at 223 grams will supply about 115 calories.

Sweet fruits such as apples contain quite a lot of sugar. But don’t let this put you off too much, as the sugar you get from fruit is a lot less damaging than the sugar you get from processed foods, sweets, chocolates and junk food. Apples also contain quite a high amount of fibre, so you can consider them a cornerstone of your diet.

Negative calorie foods are a hot discussion topic in the world of dieting. These are substances that supposedly require more energy to digest than they supply to the body. This would mean that eating only negative calorie foods would lead to malnutrition and eventually death through starvation. However, as many of you will already be aware, negative calorie foods are an urban myth. All foods – even very low-calorie ones such as celery and carrots, provide a lot more energy than is needed to digest them. So it turns out the question ‘how many calories do you burn by eating a carrot’ does not make much sense. In fact, the metabolic energy required to digest a carrot is below 10% of its nutritional content.

The only substance that can truly be called a negative calorie intake is water. Water does not contain any calories, but the body uses energy to process it. Therefore, the net result is a negative calorie process. However, by most definitions, water is excluded from the negative calorie substance category as well, because it does not contain any substances vital for diet, such as protein or carbohydrates.

For the purpose of this article, all calorie burn rates are calculated under the assumption of a vigorous pace. If you would like to know the amount of calories burned doing sit ups at a low to medium rate, you should halve the rates below. So how many calories do you burn by doing sit ups? Keep reading to find out.

Contrary to popular belief, doing sit ups is not actually the most effective way to target the abdominal muscles. In fact, you are more likely to do yourself an injury than do some good. The most common mistake whilst doing sit ups is to wrap your hands around your head and pull it forward. This puts an unhealthy strain on your neck and spine and can cause damage. Instead, try placing your fingers lightly against your temples and keeping your neck and back straight, with your eyes looking up at the ceiling throughout the movement.

If you weigh 150 pounds, you will burn 540 calories per hour doing sit ups. At 175 pounds you will burn 630 kcal per hour. At 200 pounds, this becomes 720 kcal/hour.

In order to translate the figures above into calorie expenditure per number of sit ups, we can assume that at a vigorous pace, you can complete one full sit up motion in one second. This means that per sit up, you burn 9 calories at 150 pounds, 11 at 175 pounds and 12 at 200 pounds.

So how many calories do you burn by doing 100 sit ups? At 150 pounds you burn 90 calories. At 175 pounds you burn 110 calories and at 200 pounds – 120 calories.

How many calories do you burn by doing 50 sit ups? At 150 pounds you burn 45 calories. At 175 pounds you burn 55 calories and at 200 pounds – 60 kcal.

You’ve seen cross country skiers flitting across idyllic snowy plains on tv and perhaps from your holiday lodge. Looks smooth and easy, doesn’t it? Well, you could be in for a nasty surprise. Cross country skiing is known to be extremely difficult. Even once you’ve mastered the technique – which could take months – it will test your leg muscles to the max. So how many calories do you burn by cross country skiing? Read our article below to find out.

Cross country skiing uses every muscle in the legs to keep you moving forward. The up and down motion of your heel works the calves, the forward thrusting motion works the hamstrings, and the backward pull works the quads. In addition, your gluteus and core will benefit greatly from the activity.

If you weigh 150 pounds, cross country skiing at a moderate pace will burn as much as 570 kcal/hour. At 175 pounds, you’re looking at 665 kcal per hour. At 200 pounds, you will likely burn around 760 calories/hour. Keep in mind that these estimates are based on a rather leisurely pace!

If you have some experience, and cross country ski at a fast pace, you will expend 640 calories per hour if you weigh 150 pounds. At 175 pounds, this increases to 750 kcal per hour. At 200 pounds – 860 calories/hour.

The most gruelling parts of cross country skiing are the uphill climbs – these will work your calf muscles more than almost any other form of exercise. How many calories can you burn cross country skiing uphill? Using our usual weight categories, at 150 pounds you are looking at 1000 calories per hour. At 175 pounds, the exercise earns you 1165 kcal/hour. At 200 pounds, your work will burn 1335 calories/hour.

Your Basal Metabolic Rate (BMR) is affected significantly by the frequency and size of your meals during the day. Any adjustment in meal times will bring about a different burn rate and hence a different calorie consumption. So how many calories do you burn by adjusting meal times? It turns out that you can burn up to 20% more just by following some basic guidelines. This translated to about 400 calories for an adult male and 300 calories for a female.

Sumo wrestlers eat only twice a day in order to gain weight. If you wish to lose weight, you must increase the frequency of your meals to one every 1-2 hours. The reason for this is that your body’s metabolism is finely tuned to interpret the regularity of food consumption as a measure of your access to food. If you let several hours go by between meals, your system interprets this as a sign to activate ‘starvation mode’, and it will begin to store energy whenever possible. This translates to an increase in weight. On the other hand, if you supply your body with a regular input of light meals, your digestive system knows it does not need to store much, as the next energy boost is never far away.

In addition to eating at regular intervals, you should stop eating at least 2 hours before going to bed. The reason for this is simple: you burn significantly less calories while asleep, and so any food being digested in this state is more likely to be stored as energy. As a rule of thumb, high calorie foods and carbs should be consumed in the morning, so that they can be burned throughout the day.

Push ups are a simple and effective way of strengthening the arms, shoulders, chest, back and core in one movement. How many calories do you burn doing push ups? If you weigh 150 pounds, you burn 540 calories per hour doing push ups. If you weigh 175 pounds, you burn 630 kcal per hour doing push ups. If you weigh 200 pounds, you burn 720 calories/hour doing push ups. How many calories per hour you burn while doing push ups will of course depend on your pace.

The values per hour above can then be translated into calories burnt per number of push ups. Realistically, you won’t be doing an hour’s worth of push ups, so it’s not really meaningful to talk in units of kcal/hour. If we assume that one complete push up motion, starting from and ending up in the upright ready pose, takes approximately one second, we can see that one push up burns around 0.15 kcal if you weigh 150 pounds, 0.18 kcal if you weigh 175 pounds and 0.2 calories if you weigh 200 pounds.

So how many calories do you burn doing 30 push ups? At 150 pounds, the value will lie around 4.5 kcal, at 175 pounds it will be around 5.4 kcal and at 200 pounds it will be around 6 kcal.

How many calories do you burn doing 50 push ups? At 150 pounds, the value will lie around 9 kcal, at 175 pounds it will be around 5.4 kcal and at 200 pounds it will be around 10 kcal.

How many calories do you burn doing 100 push ups? At 150 pounds, the value will lie around 15 kcal, at 175 pounds it will be around 18 kcal and at 200 pounds it will be around 20 kcal.

When you first start out, don’t worry if you can only do one or two press ups. Do one in the morning and in the evening. The next day try for two and keep increasing slowly. You’ll find that your strength will increase faster than you thought over the first month or two.