Crying burns calories. Crying burns calories for both adults and babies, but it’s probably not enough to help you in your weight loss journey. For some reason, people have recently become interested in the usefulness of crying in weight loss. This post is probably all you might need to see to get all your answers concerning how crying burns calories in adults and babies, alike.
A few years ago, a popular website, AsiaOne, published a viral post that claimed that one can lose weight or burn calories simply by crying between the period of 7 pm and 10 pm. It’s hard to say how many people tried that out but it is probably going to be a waste of time and effort trying to lose calories by crying.
In my years of studying human anatomy and physiology, I have not seen a single instance where crying was recommended to help people burn calories and lose body fat. However, it is worth saying that, indeed, crying burns calories but not to the magnitude that most people might think.
The Physiology of Crying
Crying is a physiological response to intense emotions (joy, frustration, disappointment), and to irritants in the environment. Tears, which are an important component of crying, are produced in the lacrimal glands in the eyes. Crying is also associated with wailing, shouting, tantrums, or sobbing depending on the individual and the severity of the stimulus causing the cry.
When we cry, although the exact neurobiology of crying is not currently known[1]The neurobiology of human crying – PMC, it has been shown that our brain releases certain neurohormones like oxytocin, serotonin, dopamine, and cortisol. These hormones can help provide some relief from the situation, as well as help us overcome the stress. Thus, crying is an important homeostatic response naturally designed to help us let out intense emotions from within us.
Additionally, tears help to keep the eyes moist to protect them from irritating chemicals, dust, and smoke. It also contains some antibodies (Immunoglobulin A) which help to protect the eye against many disease-causing organisms.
There are three types of tears: basal tears, produced normally at rest; reflex tears, related to irritants/pollutants like dust, smoke, chemicals, or drugs; and psychic tears, related to crying or intense emotions. Among these three, psychic tears are the types that can burn significant calories in the body.
How does crying burn calories?
Every single activity by the human body requires some energy. It has been estimated that the body’s minimum energy output during a routine daily activity is about 1.800-3.000 kcal per 24 hours. This is roughly equivalent to 7.600-12.600 kJ per day. The exact energy value per individual per day is however influenced by factors like sex, age, basal metabolic rate, body build, and others.[2]Energy output – University of Masarykova
Our brain, adrenals, heart, and other organs require a constant supply of energy as calories. This, together with other bodily activities, including normal breathing activity, make up the total energy expenditure of the body per day.
Crying, also, is another physiological activity that can consume energy in the body. A study has estimated that crying expends 1.3 calories per minute. That means you would have consumed 39 calories if you cried for 30 minutes.[3]Does Crying Burn Calories? Potential Health Benefits – Healthline This is roughly the same amount of energy expenditure as laughing, but this is very small compared to regular physical exercises like cycling and others.
Crying is a physiological activity often associated with intense, stressful, or extremely happy emotions.[4]The neurobiology of human crying – PMC Crying for long periods also causes the release of the body’s hormones–oxytocin and endorphins. These, together with muscular activities during crying, also contribute to the calories loss during the process.
Better ways to burn weight other than crying
First of all, crying is not something one would induce just because one wants to lose calories. It is often an emotional response, even though it can also be a side effect of some medications like Docetaxel.
Crying is often associated with shedding tears, but tearing alone does not consume the same calories as crying. For example, dust, smoke, and some drugs can induce tear formation but for it to expend the same amount of calories as crying, it has to be associated with other emotional, endocrine, and physical activities within the body.
Despite that, it will be very unnecessary to rely on crying to burn calories. First of all, crying requires an emotional stimulus. Second, crying lasts for a very short time and it is hard to prolong it at will. Lastly, you don’t want to subject yourself to unnecessary crying when there are better ways to burn off calories.
Mild to moderate physical exercises can help burn excess calories. According to Harvard University, a cycling 155-pound person will burn between 298-372 calories in 30 minutes depending on the speed of cycling and whether it is a stationary bike or outdoor biking. Someone with a higher body weight will lose more calories and vice-versa.
Here are some indoor exercises that can effectively burn more calories than crying.
- Aerobic exercises like cycling, jogging, and running.
- Skipping or jumping rope.
- Planks
- Push-ups and pull-ups
- Lunges
- Squats, etc
These can be combined with dietary modifications–avoidance of oversized meals, eating healthy foods–, as well as being consistent, to produce the best weight loss results.
Crying children burn more calories; gain less weight
If you are worried crying excessively may cause your child to lose too much weight, you might need to devise ways to stop your child from crying excessively. According to a study, babies consume 13 percent more calories when they cry than when they are not crying. That means, letting your baby cry too much will reduce their weight gain, and that’s something you don’t want for your baby.
For adults, however, crying is not a recommended way to burn calories and lose weight. You can’t induce enough crying that would amount to a significant amount of calorie expenditure by the body.
Other Benefits of Crying
Having established that crying is not a good way to burn calories in your weight loss goals, what are some benefits of crying?
- Crying provides relief from pain and distress.
- You might get help and attention from other people.
- Enhances mood.
- It helps recover from grief.
- Helps a baby breathe more.
- Helps relieve stress, etc.
Most of these effects are due to the release of neurohormones like endorphins, and oxytocin when one cries.
Conclusion
Crying burns calories but not as much as would be enough to lose significant body weight in adults. In children, excessive crying might interfere with adequate weight gain.
