# chewing gum and burning calories **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [February 11, 2009, 3:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/chewing-gum-and-burning-calories/485321 "2009-02-11T03:21:47Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 11\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Cat\_In\_A\_Top\_Hat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f6c823/32.png) [@Cat\_In\_A\_Top\_Hat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cat_In_A_Top_Hat)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2009, 3:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/chewing-gum-and-burning-calories/485321/1 "2009-02-11T03:21:47Z")
So I have a habit of chewing Juicy Fruit gum at work. It’s good stuff. I noticed, today, that it says each stick has about ten calories to it. I tend to eat about five a day. My question is this: if I chew these for four hours out of that day, do I burn off the calories in the gum, itself, just from that? How many calories does chewing gum burn? Thanks, –CiaTH ---
**Author:** ![Duckster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/duckster/32/1244_2.png) [@Duckster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Duckster)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2009, 4:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/chewing-gum-and-burning-calories/485321/2 "2009-02-11T04:55:23Z")
According to a “factoid” in WII Fit, chewing gum all day raises your metabolic rate around 20 percent. I’m still trying to find a cite for the factoid. ---
**Author:** ![Duckster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/duckster/32/1244_2.png) [@Duckster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Duckster)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2009, 5:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/chewing-gum-and-burning-calories/485321/3 "2009-02-11T05:05:02Z")
Update - Cited in the [December 1999 issue of the New England Journal of Medicine](http://content.nejm.org/cgi/content/extract/341/27/2100). Subsequent posts in the NEJM indicate a chew rate of 100 chews per minute, every waking hour for a full year should cause a weight reduction of 11 pounds. Geez, talk about a chin wag! ---
**Author:** ![Mbossa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/73ab20/32.png) [@Mbossa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mbossa)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2009, 5:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/chewing-gum-and-burning-calories/485321/4 "2009-02-11T05:24:02Z")
> [@Duckster](#): > > Subsequent posts in the NEJM indicate a chew rate of 100 chews per minute, every waking hour for a full year should cause a weight reduction of 11 pounds. But in the long term, it will make you turn fat and blue and the Oompa-Loompas will have to roll you into the juicing room. ---
**Author:** ![si\_blakely](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d9b06d/32.png) [@si\_blakely](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/si_blakely)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2009, 8:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/chewing-gum-and-burning-calories/485321/5 "2009-02-11T08:22:32Z")
The chewing gum is fine, but it’s the kicking ass that burns the fat 😉 Si ---
**Author:** ![Cat\_In\_A\_Top\_Hat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f6c823/32.png) [@Cat\_In\_A\_Top\_Hat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cat_In_A_Top_Hat)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2009, 10:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/chewing-gum-and-burning-calories/485321/6 "2009-02-11T10:01:02Z")
> [@Mbossa](#): > > But in the long term, it will make you turn fat and blue and the Oompa-Loompas will have to roll you into the juicing room. true, but the cure for that would make me uber-flexible. That’d be neat. Also, blue skin would be neat 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![atomicbadgerrace](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/8e7dd6/32.png) [@atomicbadgerrace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/atomicbadgerrace)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2009, 10:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/chewing-gum-and-burning-calories/485321/7 "2009-02-11T10:08:41Z")
> [@Duckster](#): > > Subsequent posts in the NEJM indicate a chew rate of 100 chews per minute, every waking hour for a full year should cause a weight reduction of 11 pounds. Some math brings us back to the OP, then. If we assume a day has 16 waking hours (and 8 for sleep), then there are 5840 waking hours in a year. A loss of 11 pounds, at 3500 calories/lb, would be 38,500 calories. 38500 / 5840 = 6.59 calories/hr burnt chewing gum. At 4 hours worth of chewing, you’d burn 26.36 calories, but consume 50 calories from the gum itself. So you’d burn about half of what you took in. Then again, I suppose the NEJM takes into account the caloric value of gum, itself. Which would suggest that you burn those calories off and more in the chewing process, and my math is a crock. Then again, I never understood the caloric content of gum. Do the 10 calories come in while chewing, or only if you swallow the gum? Keep in mind that I know absolutely nothing about the nutritional value of gum whatsoever, and am expecting someone to come in and school me any moment now. ---
**Author:** ![astro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/9dc877/32.png) [@astro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astro)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2009, 10:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/chewing-gum-and-burning-calories/485321/8 "2009-02-11T10:37:44Z")
Unless you chew the gum to the point that you will likely have severe dental and tooth integrity issues there is no way that you will “chew off” the sugar calories extracted from the gum. RE the OP 5 sticks or 5 packs? If you are spending 50 minutes worrying each stick of gum into a rubbery gristle and spending half the day chewing you are (IMO) begging for dental or jaw related problems in the long run. ---
**Author:** ![friedo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/8edcca/32.png) [@friedo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/friedo)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2009, 3:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/chewing-gum-and-burning-calories/485321/9 "2009-02-11T15:00:43Z")
> [@atomicbadgerrace](#): > > Then again, I never understood the caloric content of gum. Do the 10 calories come in while chewing, or only if you swallow the gum? I would guess that all the calories come from the sugar in the gum’s flavoring, and not the relatively undigestible gum part. The flavoring gets sucked off and swallowed even if you don’t swallow the gum. So if you’re really interested on going on a chewing gum diet, sugar-free gum would work better. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Critical1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/3e96dc/32.png) [@Critical1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Critical1)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2009, 7:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/chewing-gum-and-burning-calories/485321/10 "2009-02-11T19:39:28Z")
> [@astro](#): > > Unless you chew the gum to the point that you will likely have severe dental and tooth integrity issues there is no way that you will “chew off” the sugar calories extracted from the gum. > > RE the OP 5 sticks or 5 packs? If you are spending 50 minutes worrying each stick of gum into a rubbery gristle and spending half the day chewing you are (IMO) begging for dental or jaw related problems in the long run. why are you begging for jaw/dental related problems? (and if you are merely talking sugar related what about for sugarless gum?) I chewed a ton of gum for a couple years (sugarless) and when I stopped my jaw would some times pop while I was eating (really loudly too) but that didnt happen when I was on the gum kick and didnt last long after I stopped. ---
**Author:** ![BrandonR](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/779978/32.png) [@BrandonR](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrandonR)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2009, 7:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/chewing-gum-and-burning-calories/485321/11 "2009-02-11T19:41:18Z")
Juicy Fruit remains to be one of the only sugared gums I ever see anymore…