The Dreamgirls diva told the UK paper The Sun that her secret to weight loss is hula hooping. “As a kid I won contests,” she said. “It’s great for your waist.” Part of me wanted to ignore her, because obviously her syrup-and-cayenne starvation plan deserves a heaping dose of credit here. But the other part of me bothered to research hooping as a legit form of exercise.

And guess what? It actually is. It works the abs and glutes, and even better, a minute of hula hooping burns as many calories as jogging a 12-minute mile (that’s 5 mph on the treadmill). And a minute of serious hula hooping—with a weighted hoop or an exercise video—can burn as many calories as running an eight-minute mile (7.5 mph on the treadmill). I’m still in holiday online-shopping mode, so here’s a link to some cool weighted hoops.

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written by Kara Wahlgren, July 06, 2007

Research done by the Cooper Institute for Human Performance and Nutrition Research in Dallas found that hula-hooping with a weighted hoop (they used a three-pounder) for eight minutes burned 110 calories, same as an eight-minute mile.

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written by Lori, July 06, 2007

Where did you find your info on how many calories you can burn with the hoops? Ive been looking everywhere and cant find any info. I bought a weighted(3lbs) hoop and didnt know if I was actually going to be burning anything or not.