Photo gallery: 5 surprising small things that can ruin your diet

Could that stick of gum be sabotaging your diet?

It's a scary thought, but even something as benign as your chewing gum habit could be packing 100-plus calories onto your daily diet. Similarly, other lifestyle choices like keeping your home super-chilled or wearing sky-high stilettos could be contributing to your lack of diet success. If you're looking for small ways that, cumulatively, can make a big difference in your diet and fitness success, read on. You may never look at central air the same way again.

Chewing gum
As avowed gum chewers know, you can never stop at just one piece of gum. But one piece of bubble gum like Bubbalicious has 25 calories, meaning one pack of five pieces has 125 calories – the equivalent of any number of sweet or savoury treats that you may as well actually eat. A sugar-free chewing gum like Dentyne Ice logs 5 calories per piece/12 pieces per pack, so it's fine if you're sticking to a pack-a-day habit. But cut back if you're regularly going through multiple packs per day.