Forget golf… here’s six other ways to lose weight without breaking a sweat

Researchers yesterday had great news for anyone that loathes cardio — playing golf is good for you.

And it may be even better for your health than Nordic walking, the team concluded. 

However, there are plenty of ways to torch the calories and keep yourself fit without bending down to lace up your trainers, studies suggest…

Jumping in a cold bath 

It’s the trend health kick making a splash. Celebrities like lockdown fitness titan Joe Wicks and Lizzo rave about the supposed health benefits. 

But can it actually help you lose weight? 

In short, yes. Researchers have found evidence that exposure to cold temperatures, such as in the form of a shower or bath, can speed up your metabolism. 

One way it does this is by forcing the body to burn extra calories just to maintain its core temperature.   

Advocates argue that a 15-minute cold shower can burn up to 62 calories — the equivalent of an orange. 

But its exact power is disputed. Others claim it increases the metabolic rate by around 1 calorie a minute. Others say close to zero.. 

One expert at the Cleveland Clinic, a US non-profit academic medical centre, once said: ‘Cold showers are not going to be your best route to weight loss.’  

Aside from beating the bulge, cold exposure therapy is also believed to help improve your quality of sleep. 

Cleaning the house

Very few of us enjoy household chores. But vacuuming can help you keep fit. 

And the harder you work, the more you’ll burn. 

It is one example of non-exercise activity thermogenesis, or NEAT, is the energy you burn by the movements we make when going about our daily lives.

According to a 2021 report by Wren Kitchens, cleaning your house or flat, equates to 3,976 calories a month — the equivalent of 3,340 burpees.

That calculation is, however, based on someone cleaning the house for 280 minutes and who has an average weight of 156 pounds or 70.7kg. 

If you weigh more, then you’ll burn more calories, however if you weigh less, you’ll burn less. It is also reliant on an online calorie calculator.   

Eating celery 

Tales that celery has special weight-loss powers have long had dieters reaching for a stick. 

But does eating the vegetable actually burn calories? The answer is yes and no. 

Celery has long been considered a negative-calorie foods — one that sees the body burn more calories trying to digest it than it actually contains. 

Nutritionists have described the concept of negative-calorie food as plausible but a myth. 

For example, one study in 2012 found a tiny surplus from eating 100g of celery, amounting to just two calories.   

Yet, one more recently concluded the opposite. 

In 2016, researchers from the University Hospitals Coventry and Warwickshire NHS Trust and the University of Warwick placed Channel 4’s Food Unwrapped presenter Matt Tebbutt in a metabolic ‘calorie chamber’. 

It measured every calorie burned while he was fed celery over a 12-hour period – 326 grams of raw celery and a celery smoothie, both worth 53 calories. 

The results showed he burned 72 calories while eating the solid celery and 112 calories drinking the liquidised celery.

Regardless, they say celery on its own is impossible. 

But celery might have a knock-on effect in helping lose weight by filling you up faster. 

A 2004 study published in the Journal of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics also found people given free reign at an all-you-can-eat buffet consumed up to 12 per cent less calories if they ate a salad containing celery beforehand. 

This clocked up a saving of up to 100 calories in a single meal. 

Fidgeting 

Great news for those that can’t sit still. Forget dieting or weight lifting, try fidgeting instead. 

For life’s fidgeters are natural-born weight losers, according to scientists. 

Multiple studies have confirmed that fidgeting throughout the entire day can burn up to ten times more calories than just sitting still. 

Researchers at the Mayo Clinic even clocked the number at 350 calories per day in 2005. 

Another study found that people who fidgeted while seated or standing were shown to burn five to six times more calories, on average, than when they sat or stood still. 

Going food shopping 

Hitting the shops needn’t just exercise your wallet.

Pushing a trolley up and down the supermarket aisles will also burn 243 calories per hour, according to experts at TriHealth, a US based health system. 

That means doing the weekly shop could help you burn the equivalent of three chocolate chunk cookies. 

Research also shows that the simple act of walking for at least 30 minutes every day can help lower blood pressure, strengthen muscles and boosts immune function – another reason to ditch ordering your food shop online.  

Chewing gum 

Chew to thwart snacking, research indicates. 

Chewing gum has been shown to promote feelings of fullness — therefore reducing the number of calories you consume from snacking. 

But evidence also suggests it may help speed up your metabolism, as the process of chewing and digesting uses extra energy. 

A study in 30 young adults, found chewing gum for 20 minutes after each meal increased metabolic rate, even through the night.

Research conducted by the Mayo Clinic also discovered that chewing gum burns around an extra 11 calories an hour.