Does crying burn calories?. This question is most times considered as a joke, but actually there is research that proves that we can burn calories by letting out our feelings and expressing our emotions. Away from burning calories while crying, there is a mental health benefits to crying, because it triggers the brain to release happy chemicals and signals to other people that we need help and support.
When you find yourself in an unpleasant situation that provokes tears because of the happenings which is quite contrary with life expectation, like death of a family member, failures in examination, fatal accident and other unfortunate situations an circumstances, you automatically result into crying. Crying relief stress and promote mental stability
What Is Crying?
The above question is easy to answer, because; at least everyone has cried at one point of their lives or the orther. moreso; we see cry because we see people crying around us. Crying releases endorphins and oxytocin. These two hormones are natural messengers that helps to relieve emotional distress and physical pain. That means crying is self-soothing behavior.
Does Crying Burn Calories
Crying burns calories, but; not enough to make a significant difference in term of weight loss. This is not surprising, because there are not much of muscles involved in the act of crying. Only 1.3 calories can be burnt per minute in the physical act of crying, therefore crying one hour, can burn about 60 calories or more.
Why Do We Cry?
Crying communicate the following emotions:
- Empathy
- Compassion
- Physical pain
- Attachment pain
- Moral and sentimental emotion.
What are the Health Benefits of Crying?
1. Detoxifies the Body
Tears can clear smoke and dust, from the eyes. Continuous tears can also lubricate the eyes and protect them from infection. Tears contains 98% water, it also tears contain hormones that can relieve stress when release and other toxins.
2. Dulls Pain
Crying for long will release oxytocin and endogenous opioids, known as endorphins, these are a feel-good hormone that can ease pain physically and emotionally. Once these endorphins are released, your entire body can go into somewhat of a numb stage, were the Oxytocin can give you a sense of calm.
3. Improves Mood
Crying, specifically sobbing, can even lift the spirit. Sobbing makes you take in quick breaths of air. Breathing-in cool air regulates and lowers the brains temperature. Cool brain is of great advantage to the body, the mind and the entire body, than a warm brain, then as a result, your mood will improve after a sobbing.
4. Rallies Support
Crying expressed in an obvious way to those around you can stimulate immediate support. This is an interpersonal benefit of crying. Crying is an attachment behavior for babies, because; by crying the attract anyone around for help and support. Comfort and care can be obtained in many ways by crying even by adults. So crying helps to build social support when the going gets tough.
5. Helps you Recover from Grieve
Grieving involves periods of sorrow, numbness, guilt, and anger. Crying is particularly important during these periods. It can help you process and accept the loss. Everyone has a grieving process in different ways.
6. Restores Emotional Balance
Crying is not only when something bad happens. You can cry when you are incredibly happy (tears of joy), scared, or stressed. Researchers at Yale University theorized that crying this way can help to restore the emotional equilibrium of a person. When extremely happy or scared about something and cry, it can be the body’s way to recover from a strong emotion.
7. Helps Babies Breathe
Baby’s first cry when during birth signifies important crying. Babies breath inside the womb through the umbilical cord. Once the baby is born, they must start breathing with their nose. That very first cry is what helps their lungs to adapt to life in the outside world.
8. Helps Self-soothe
Crying may be one of your best mechanisms to self-soothe. Researchers have found that crying activates the parasympathetic nervous system (PNS). The PNS helps your body rest and digest. The benefits aren’t immediate, however. It may take several minutes of shedding tears before you feel the soothing effects of crying.
9. Helps Babies Sleep
Crying can help babies sleep well in the night. A study was conducted on infant sleep, were 43 parents made use of graduated extinction (controlled crying), to put their babies to bed. With this, babies were left to cry for a set number of minutes before the intervention from parents. This crying was able to increase the sleep length and reduce the number of times the children are awake during the night.
Does Crying Burn Calories in Babies
For infants, crying will release unused energy. Crying done with a support system is very healthy in maintaining your child’s wellness. So it is okay to allow your babies cry for about 15 to 30 minutes. In terms of weight loss, crying cannot be compared to stepper exercise
Conclusion
It’s okay to cry, it is also even beneficial for adults to cry. If you feel the need to cry, it is advisable that you don’t hold back the tears. Tears are a healthy way to express emotional pain.
Crying is not a big calorie-burning exercise, but there are other health benefits from the release of tears. Some of these health benefits of crying may even help balance hormones and trigger your body metabolism which can help in weight loss.