Chewing Gum Burns Calories
 

I read an article (here's a link) that says that chewing gum burns 11 calories an hour. So, what do you think? If I chew my pieces of sugarless gum at least half an hour, can I reasonably leave it off my calorie count?

Am I being too nit-picky to be spending time even thinking about this? I chew a few pieces of sugarless gum a day, almost every day, so I figure it adds up over time!

Good grief! :lol: How fast are you chewing? Yes, I feel it's a bit nit picky but go for it. As a former school teacher, I object to gum chewing but.....

Sugarless gum has calories??? Dang. Aproximately how much does each piece have?

Too funny! I got a Snapple at lunch today (never fear, diet iced tea flavor - 0 calories) and they have little factoids under the lids. Mine today said that chewing gum burns 20 calories an hour. Still not going to give up running as my primary cardio source :)

If it burns a few calories go for it. Me personally I quit chewing gum when I saw what it was mainly made out of.....rubber. After that I could not imagine chewing another piece of gum. http://home.howstuffworks.com/question86.htm

Well, everything you do burns calories. Standing burns more calories than sitting. You can fidget and burn a few that way!

I think if you're only chewing a few pieces you probably don't need to worry about it... But if you're eating 10-20... that can add up!

I don't bother to count either sugarless gum or sugarless candy. I usually only have one piece of gum per day but sometime I'll have up to four or five pieces of candy.

I used to obsess about stuff like this, but I finally figured out that, at around 6 calories each for a total of maybe 30 calories, if I'm not losing weight, it's not the sugarless gum/candy that is the problem. I'm sure I have a deficit of 500 calories or more per day, so 30 calories is not going to make or break my weight loss.

I don't worry about the calories from sugarless gum, but then I rarely have more than two pieces per day. I would say it's probably nit-picking to worry about that if you are only having a few a day. :)

I chew about a pack (14 pieces) of Stride gum a day. It's what keeps me sane. They are under 5 calories a piece and since chewing them each for an hour burns 11 calories, I don't worry about it. Like someone above said, if the weight isn't coming off, it isn't the gum. :)

I also have read on a few articles (and even saw it on a TV show!) that it burns 11 calories an hour.
One thing to keep in mind though, no matter what you eat (or chew) if it says 0 calories, it can actually be up to 5 calories. Something to do with laws of labels, but anything 5 calories or under can be marked as 0 calories a serving. (with things like mustard this can add up fast).
So, that would mean it could only be something like 1 calorie per half an hour, depending.
I don't know, personally it seems like it's not worth considering.

How much mustard do you eat?? :D

Haha, I don't really use it often. But I was just trying to make a point. Like, a lot of people will put it on pretzels, or just use it on everything instead of mayo or ketchup, and it does add up over time.