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Riki's picture

no time for the gym

I read that the brain uses 70% of the body's glucose, which is one of the body's main source of chemical energy. This, to me, implies that interneurons are largely responsible for the brain:body ratio of glucose energy usage, which goes along with the boxes in boxes theory of the brain. This makes sense because the brain oversees the rest of the body. So I am wondering if someone who exercises their mind significantly more than another will "burn" significantly more glucose (can this be of interest to those looking to lose weight?), and if it's mental toil that does this, how much do mental struggles such as mood disorders influence the brain's glucose usage? What about intense dreams?

I googled "brain burn calories" and read this http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/02/science/02qna.html . It seemed logical until I read this section:

"'There are good, sophisticated studies that show that concentrated mental activity, like doing a difficult multiplication problem in your head, increases the glucose uptake to the brain,' he [Dr. Levitsky] said. By how many calories? Less than, say, 20 calories of the 300, he estimated.
But you do not engage that long in such an activity, he said, so the difference might amount to only about 10 calories a day. That means thinking hard is not a good way to lose weight."
I don't know how much time he means by "that long", but I think that students, for example, probably do engage in difficult problem solving at least a few hours everyday when learning new concepts in class and working through homework problems or readings. So maybe students could lose weight this way.

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