I am very aware that I have no rhythm. Despite that fact (and much to my husband’s chagrin) I still love to dance. I dance at weddings, concerts, in my living room, and even in the car. My motivation for being a self-proclaimed dancing queen is that it’s fun – but it doesn’t hurt that dancing also burns a ton of calories. According to Health.com, 30 minutes of dancing burns 221 calories (which would vary based on the individual, of course). I believe it too – just look at how much weight the contestants on Dancing With the Stars lose. To be a dancing queen, you’ve got to have the right music that gets you fired up. There’s no better music to bust out a move to than that made by my guiltiest of guilty pleasures: boy bands.
My love of boy bands is very deep-rooted. As a child I was obsessed with New Kids on the Block (I was a Joey girl). In fact (at the tender age of 10-years-old) NKOTB was my very first concert. My appreciation for squeaky clean boys who performed choreographed dance moves while singing brilliant harmonies continued through grade school on in to college. I’m not ashamed to admit that I saw Backstreet Boys and ‘N Sync in concert between the summer of my junior and senior years of college. To this day my heart beats a little faster when Quit Playing Games With My Heart or I Want You Back comes on the radio (and that results in some serious car dancing).
I recently conducted a little experiment in the privacy of my own basement to find out which boy band gets me the most pumped and results in the biggest calorie burn. To measure how many calories were burned during each song I relied on my trusty old Polar Heart Rate monitor. I selected eight different songs from eight different boy bands (ranging from NKOTB to One Direction) and put on my dancing shoes. Even though I am a little more partial to certain boy bands over others, I made sure to keep my dancing completely unbiased and consistent.
The results are shown below from lowest to highest calorie burn (based on average heart rate). Each band/song is listed followed by the length of time (of the song), total calories burned and average heart rate.
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8. Jonas Brothers: SOS 2:46, 26 calories, 129 avg. HR
7. Hanson: Mmm Bop 3:51, 38 calories, 130 avg. HR
6. One Direction: What Makes You Beautiful, 3:17, 33 calories, 134 avg. HR
5. Backstreet Boys: Everybody (Backstreet’s Back), 4:41, 51 calories, 137 avg. HR
4. Boyz II Men: Motown Philly, 3:51, 44 calories, 142 avg. HR
3. ‘N Sync: Bye Bye Bye, 3:41, 41 calories, 142 avg. HR
2. New Kids on the Block: The Right Stuff, 4:19, 49 calories, 143 avg. HR
…and the winner is:
1. 98˚: Give Me Just One Night (Una Noche), 3:24, 40 calories, 145 avg. HR
Even though I tried to dance with the same amount of energy for each song, there are just certain bands that get me more pumped up than others. I’ve never been a Jonas Brothers or One Direction fan – so my dance moves weren’t quite as fantastic for them as compared to NKOTB. I also tried to incorporate any of the boy bands’ signature moves that went along with any of the songs (i.e. the infamous dance to the chorus of The Right Stuff). Ultimately, I think 98˚ was the winner because the song has a great Latin beat and lends itself well to a lot of hip swaying (thrusting) and Zumba-esque moves.
Not only was it incredibly fun to act silly and dance around in my basement to these boy band wonders, I burned a whopping 322 calories in just under 32 minutes. Never underestimate the power of the boy band.
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