There’s nothing like a good joke
Q: Did you see that laughing can burn as many calories as a brisk walk?
A: In the Herald? Yes.
Q: Can it?
A: A very short brisk walk, yes.
Q: What do you mean?
A: They say “flat out, uncontrollable, roll on the floor howling – was found to burn 120 calories an hour, similar to the amount burnt by walking at a moderate pace.”
Q: So you just need to do that for an hour, nonstop?
A: That’s right.
Q: This was a British scientist, right?
A: ….yes?
Q: The BBC has pretty good comedies
A: Not that good
Q: Do they have any real estimates of how much exercise you could get?
A: Not in the Herald, but another newspaper says their estimated maximum for the funniest show they looked at was 32 calories of laughter over 45 minutes.
Q: So like a quarter of an hour of brisk walking?
A: Pretty much
Q: Which show?
A: Taskmaster
Q: ?
A: I think you had to be there.
Q: And how about humour producing wry smiles and the occasional snigger?
A: That burns about as much energy as reading blogs.
Q: It doesn’t sound like a serious suggestion. Is it possible that the papers which printed this story just didn’t get the joke?
A: Could easily be.
Thomas Lumley (@tslumley) is Professor of Biostatistics at the University of Auckland. His research interests include semiparametric models, survey sampling, statistical computing, foundations of statistics, and whatever methodological problems his medical collaborators come up with. He also blogs at Biased and Inefficient See all posts by Thomas Lumley »
4 calorie chuckle :)
8 years ago
I lost a few calories over this one…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3KszJHdraSY
On the 8/10 Cats Christmas Special they were playing random party games and one guy just doesn’t get the “carrot in the box” game…
8 years ago