Easy Weight Loss - Simple Tricks for Burning Calories P.1

So, if you read my post earlier this week about extreme weight loss stories, hopefully this post doesn't find you in the hospital because you ignored my "Do NOT try this at home" warning. Most people probably don't want to bury themselves alive or get lost at sea for three weeks to lose weight.

"Hello? I feel skinnier now. Please let me out..."

Nor should they have to! Here are some quick tricks you can use to help lose weight. They don't require much thought or work, and if you make them a routine, you'll burn extra calories, meaning those pounds could potentially drop!

Ice Water

Your body expends calories to keep warm. Most of your body heat generates automatically - heat is a byproduct of breaking down food for energy and other natural chemical reactions. Still, these processes are not enough to keep ourselves at 98.6 F, so our body uses other ways to keep us warm, each using a bit of extra energy as well.

Sipping the daily recommended amount of water (64 ounces) is enough to keep you healthy and hydrated, but making it ice-water can help you lose an extra 70 calories every day!

70 calories don't seem like much, but every day, every week, every month, for an entire year? That's 25,550 calories, or the equivalent of twelve and a half days worth of energy!

This does NOT mean that you should manipulate your body's heat to make you lose more weight. Ice water is a safe trick because it doesn't drastically lower your temperature. Consistently lowering your temperature can make you sick or even cause hypothermia.

Celery

You've probably heard the myth that celery has "negative calories," meaning that eating and digesting celery takes more energy than the celery ultimately gives you.

And this is 100% true.

Is this why celery is always smiling?

 Celery is mostly cellulose, otherwise known as fiber. Although the body can digest a small amount of fiber, most of it passes right through us, aiding digestion (and pooping!) If you eat plain celery, the chemical actions the body uses to break the celery down use more energy than is gained from the small amount of cellulose we actually digest.

Peanut butter, cream cheese, or any other additions to celery immediately tip the scales, turning it into positive calories.

Again, snacking on celery should only be a small part of a greater plan for living healthy! Don't think that eating three pounds of celery a day for a week will be enough to fit into that new bathing suit. You'll wind up starving yourself and your body will break down from the lack of other vital nutrients.

Not to mention, losing weight quickly and gaining it quickly are both bad. At most, the CDC says you should only lose one to two pounds per week.