How Can You Use Humor To Boost
Your Weight Loss?

Several hearty laughs a day keep the fat away – Brainy Weight Loss

If you are like most people losing weight, you probably have gone through some hard times… Amazingly, when you just want to cry about it, the best thing to do is to laugh.

Yep, you’ve read it correctly: to laugh.

How often do you laugh?
No, no… not one of those timid smiles you use when your picture is taken! How often do you really allow yourself to vocalize a mirthful, solid belly laughter? Hmm…?

Did you know that while infants laugh about 300 times a day, adults only laugh an average of 17 times a day?

Luckily, there are whole industries built around laughter. Jokes, sitcoms and humorists are all supposed to get you laughing more, because laughing just feels good.



“Laughing is the sensation of feeling good all over and showing it principally in one spot.” – Josh Billings, popular American humorist

There are tons of lengthy scientific papers on the subject, which you certainly won’t be amused to read, so here’s just a brief summary:

• humor stimulates both sides of your brain and shuts off the flow of harmful stress hormones (epinephrine, cortisol, and dopamine) responsible for your increased weight-gain - Paul J. Rosch, M.D., president of the American Institute of Stress
• laughter is a true internal jogging: it increases your breathing, your body temperature, your metabolism, your heart rate, and your pulse - Steven M. Sultanoff, Ph.D., president of the American Association for Therapeutic Humor
• laughter is great aerobics: it provides a good workout for your midsection and your diaphragm, boosts your blood flow (according to Michael Miller - University of Maryland, Baltimore), and increases your body's ability to use oxygen to burn off more calories
• laughter is an all over body workout; it massages your abdominal organs, improves your intestinal functioning, tones and strengthens your facial, respiratory, leg, and back muscles - Paul E. McGhee, Ph.D. – popular author of numerous books on humor’s health benefits, including “Psycho-neuro-immunology and Humor”
• if you have diabetes, makes sure you put laughter on your plate, as humor significantly decreases the usual spike in your blood sugar after a meal - according to Japanese researchers Hayashi & Murakami
• laughter increases your energy and self-esteem, making you more likely to perform physical activities that you might otherwise avoid - according to a study done at the University of Maryland Medical Center
• ten minutes of hearty laughter daily would burn an average of five pounds a year - according to the researchers from Vanderbilt University in Tennessee

It’s no secret that laughter is a great thing - that's why you've certainly heard the saying, "laughter is the best medicine”, or to cite again Josh Billings:

"There ain’t much fun in medicine, but there’s a heck of a lot of medicine in fun."

Having fun is essential to your health and laughter does some pretty amazing stunts in your body. For instance:

• it decreases your dopamine levels – a stress neurohormone (responsible for the ‘fight or flight response’), caused by fear, stress, rage, or hostility, and associated with elevated blood pressure and the risk of stroke
• laughing relaxes your whole body and reduces problems associated with arthritis and ulcers
• regular laughter provides you with an excellent source of cardiac exercise and lowers your resting heart rates
• laughter strengthens your immune system increasing infection-fighting antibodies and alleviating any allergic symptoms you might experience
• laughter replaces your distressing emotions with pleasurable feelings - you can’t possibly feel angry, depressed, anxious, guilty, or resentful and laugh at the same time
• having fun reduces your psychological stress by giving you a different perspective on your life and world – since it’s not certain situations that generate your stress, but the meaning you place on these situations
• laughter increases your respiration, causing a profound process of air exchange at the blood capillaries level; as a result, oxygenated blood feeds your entire body, including your brain – with a great positive impact on your thinking and learning
• a good sense of humor enhances your self-esteem and your behavior, your ability to connect, talk more, and make more eye contact with others

Develop a sense of humour by putting time, focus and energy into experiences that make you laugh and feel good.

Here’s how:

• figure out what makes you laugh and do it, read it, or watch it more often - increase you exposure to comedies, comic sitcoms, joke books, and comedy clubs
• surround yourself with funny people; be with them every chance you get and spend time with those who help you see the bright side of everything
• observe infants and young children to learn how to find delight and amusement in the most ordinary things; look for the everyday amusing moments: the absurd, the silly, the incongruous in your daily life
• avoid conversations, news, or movies that frighten, upset and distress you or make you feel sad and unhappy

• remind yourself to have fun, take a 10 - 15 minute humor break each day - read jokes or listen to something funny
• recall several of the most embarrassing moments in your life, find the humour in them and practice telling stories describing them in a humorous way; it might take a little exaggeration or dramatization, but hey, isn't that what good storytelling is all about?
• as long as it's not at someone else's expense, laugh every time you get a chance – including the jokes about weight loss, dieting, fitness, and nutrition below:

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