According to a very serious British study, watching horror films allows spectators to eliminate calories. Find out which is the most effective feature film in this area.
Losing calories by sitting quietly on your couch watching a movie is possible! As long as the film in question is scary enough.
Indeed, according to a very serious study by the University of Westminster (relayed in 2012 by The Telegraph), the anxiety caused by certain feature-length horror films would help to eliminate calories, and therefore to a lesser extent to lose weight.
So if you’re ready to bravely brave the shark in Jaws, Jack Nicholson’s ax in The Shining or the fearsome Alien crawling through the corridors of Nostromo, the adrenaline rush that should result from your session is likely to make you burn up to 113 calories in 90 minutes, the equivalent of half an hour of walking or cycling.
The researchers who carried out the famous study came to this conclusion by observing a panel of spectators and measuring their heart rate, their oxygen consumption and their rate of carbon dioxide release while they were watching. 10 carefully selected horror films.
Among these feature films, some are obviously more effective than others in stimulating their audiences. And so it was Shining which proved to be the most effective, making its spectators lose up to 184 calories.
Warner Bros.
(If Stanley Kubrick’s film is so radical, it’s largely thanks to them!)
Here is the Top 10 in full according to the British study:
- Shining (184 calories)
- Jaws (161 calories)
- The Exorcist (158 calories)
- Alien (152 calories)
- Saw (133 calories)
- Freddy: Claws of the Night (118 calories)
- Paranormal Activity (111 calories)
- Texas Chainsaw Massacre (107 calories)
- The Blair Witch Project (105 calories)
- [REC] (101 calories)
According to Dr. Richard Mackenzie, who carried out the study, the process is simple: subjected to the stress of the film, the viewer’s heart rate accelerates. The heart then pumps blood more quickly, and the body experiences a surge of adrenaline, which reduces the subject’s appetite and allows them to burn off more calories.
(Re)discover the “Jaws” trailer…