Burn 100 More Calories a Day With This Super-Easy Dinner Swap

Make your dinner more nutritious—and fire up its calorie-burning potential at the same time. All you need to do is sub whole grains for refined grains, according to a new study out of Tufts University.

The researchers split 81 people into two groups: One group ate a diet rich in whole grains, with a fiber content around 40 grams a day. The other consumed mostly refined grains, with only around half the fiber.

After 6 weeks, the researchers discovered that the people in the whole-grain diet lost an additional 100 calories per day—the equivalent burned during a brisk, 30 minute walk or by skipping a cookie, the study authors say in a press release.

Substituting whole grains for refined grains—say, subbing in brown rice with your dinner instead of your usual white— increases calorie loss by reducing the calories you retain during digestion. The swap also tends to speed up metabolism. (Slash calories quick by exercising, too—this workout burns 346 calories in 13 minutes.)

Basically, you burn calories better even when you’re doing nothing, and you poop out more, too. How is that not winning?

Credit much of that to the additional fiber in whole grains compared to low-fiber content of refined grains. According to the Mayo Clinic, dietary fiber isn’t digested by the body, but rather acts like a sweeper to move other material through your digestive system.

That makes your toilet time more productive. It also increases the efficiency of your body’s food processing system, and that provides a metabolism boost that helps you use and burn more calories.

Want to try the exact workout used in the study? Here’s how:

Perform as many reps as you can of the first exercise in 30 seconds, using a weight that is 50 percent of your one-rep max. Rest 15 seconds. 

That’s 1 set. Do 3. Repeat with exercises 2 through 6. 

1. Bench press
2. Bent-over row
3. Bicep curl
4. Lying triceps extension
5. Leg extension
6. Lying leg curl