If you happen to love watching sappy movies and tend to cry a lot, it looks like you’re simultaneously shedding some weight too. At least that’s what this study says.
According to AsiaOne, a study has found that crying, especially the ones with all the feels and heavy emotions, can help you lose weight. This is because the hormones from emotional crying helps heighten the cortisol level, and this happens when you have bottled-up emotions. Yes, all those feels that you usually suppress and keep inside!
There, there. Make sure you let it all out, k?
In fact, stress-induced tears were discovered to have the ability of getting rid of several types of toxic substances from the body, which is why biochemist William Frey has come to a conclusion that crying helps remove those toxic substances that tend to build up when humans are emotionally stressed.
Moreover, it’s not like our bodies can continue storing more fat when we’re shedding those tears, because all the stressful hormones that were suppressed would’ve already been released through this excretory process.
Source: RadioNZ
That said, the study pointed out that you can only reap these benefits if you cry tears that are triggered by real emotions. FYI, there are 3 types of tears, namely;
- Basal tears – aka “basic functional tears” that keep our peepers moist
- Reflex tears – aka “irritation tears” that we involuntarily shed due to environmental stressors like smoke and wind
- Psychic tears – aka tears linked to our true feelings and human emotions
Hence, only Psychic tears that stream down our faces are said to have the “losing weight” effect. Meanwhile, it looks like there is even a specific time frame to maximise this effect because scientists have apparently advised crying anytime from 7pm to 10pm, citing that this is the best time to sob over your favourite rom-coms or films with sad endings. Okay, I guess I’ll take note when to Netflix and cry.
Well, it looks like a good cry isn’t just good for releasing all that pent-up feelings for the sake of our mental health, but it’s great for our physical well-being too! Of course, take this study with a pinch of salt lah and don’t start crying every day just because you want to lose weight, okay?
What do you think of this study’s findings? Sound off in the comments.
Also read: Mother Gives Out 200 Goodie Bags to Flight Passengers in Case Her Baby Starts Crying
