Nutrition Frenzy

Can’t fit in your full exercise routine? Try squeezing in mini workoutsReady to shop, stuff yourself and stress about weight gain? No doubt, all the hustle and bustle of the holiday season can leave little time for working out.

But even if you can’t fit in your full exercise routine, squeezing in a mini workout that burns just 100 calories can help counter those holiday cookies and cocktails, says Fabio Comana, an exercise physiologist at the American Council on Exercise in San Diego.

To lose a pound of fat through exercise, you have to burn 3,500 calories. “So if you can burn 100 calories consistently every day, in a period of five weeks, that’s a pound,” Comana says. And over a year, that’s 10 pounds.

Take a lap around the mall
If you’ve been looking for a good reason to spend more time at the mall, here you go: Walking for 25 minutes burns about 100 calories. And when it’s cold outside and you don’t belong to a gym, what better place to walk than the mall?

Of course, we’re talking about brisk walking, not strolling along as you window shop. However, you could stop and shop and get the same calorie burn by breaking up the 25 total minutes into two chunks of exercise — walking briskly for 13 minutes, stopping to shop for awhile, then taking another walk for 12 minutes.

Savor sex
A five-minute quickie that leaves you breathless may seem like it burned up 250 calories, but 25 is more like it, notes Tommy Boone, author of “Sex Before Athletic Competition” and chair of the department of exercise physiology at the College of St. Scholastica in Duluth, Minn.

If you stretch sex out more, however, you could get a bigger calorie burn (among other possible benefits). On average, you’ll burn one to two calories a minute (depending on how vigorous sex is), or up to 100 calories for under an hour of lovemaking.

Say ‘om’
Yoga can be a gift to your mind and body, especially during the holidays. Not only can it help ease some of the stress of the season, it’ll fight fat, too.

About half an hour of hatha yoga burns 100 calories, says exercise physiologist Gerald Endress, fitness director of the Duke University Diet and Fitness Center.

If you’re too busy to go to a yoga studio, buy a DVD for home.