How many calories our body expends when mentally active

How many calories does our brain waste? Is it possible to lose weight by solving problems and playing chess?

Let’s find out together with the doctor.

Sitting in an algebra class and after it coming out with a taut torso – what is not a dream? It is true that a lot of calories are spent on mental activity, but there is a significant difference between the energy spent behind the textbooks and in the hall. Can increased mental activity affect the figure?

MD, pediatrician, nutriciologist, co-founder of UniProf Academy of Physicians.

Man is not a steam engine. It is impossible to calculate with precision how many calories an individual needs, how much he spends them during the day.

These numbers will depend not only on the amount of food and exercise, but also on the metabolic rate in general, stress levels, sleep or sleep deprivation patterns, and many other factors.

What is usually forgotten in this equation is to include basal metabolism – the amount of energy needed to power the body. This is the energy that is spent on breathing, blinking, working of internal organs, and so on.

In general, we spend energy on all arbitrary (done by our will) and involuntary (which do not depend on us) processes. And for mental activity, of course, too.

Irina: Let’s start at the “top”. Every cell in the body has a mini-energy station, the mitochondrion. It consumes food from outside (from our body) and gives out the energy needed by the cell. It is the one that takes calories to create an energy boost from them. Nerve cells have the most mitochondria – they both consume more and need more energy.

The most “voracious” organ is the brain. It consumes about 20% of the energy we get from food. During a serious mental workload (even when solving math exercises), the brain actively consumes nutrients.

If we are talking about the generally accepted standard, a person spends on mental activity from 10 to 300 kcal per hour. It depends on the intensity of the thought process. For an average efficient eight-hour working day, an office employee will spend no more than 10-20% of the accumulated during the day.

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Why you can not lose weight by thinking intensely

But, sadly, it is still pointless to go to the library for perfect abs: the work of the brain is certainly quite energy-consuming, but it does not include the necessary inclusion of the body in the active activity.

Irina: During physical activity, we put the whole body in motion, give a boost to the flow of lymph and fluid secretion. We stimulate muscles, musculoskeletal system. That together with everyday calorie expenditure gives an enhanced effect. At the same time, the body also feels and nerve impulses, and the brain often works no less intensively than a person who spends time at the computer.

Increased mental activity (playing chess, scientific research, computational processes) mostly involves only the brain and the nervous system. At the same time, the other organ and muscle groups are in a relaxed state.

How the thinking process affects weight

But can we think and lose weight? Well, no one promises us six cubes, but maybe we can at least replace the diet with a book?

Irina: Increased thought activity means constant brain work without interruptions and distractions. You are extremely concentrated and solving a difficult problem. A chess player trying to win a tournament, a doctor-surgeon performing a complex operation, a scientist discovering a new law or a selective species.

Such scientific work affects weight for several reasons:

your brain spends the supply of nutrients delivered to it, developing the circulatory system around it to get even more nutrients;
you are so focused on your work that you can’t be distracted by food intake.

Unfortunately, reading a book or monotonously doing spreadsheets that don’t involve solving a global problem, that don’t engage all branches of the nervous system and brain, won’t do much for your weight.

How many calories we spend on mental activity

It is theoretically possible to calculate how much energy the brain expends, thanks to research into energy metabolism. On average, the brain needs about 0.25 kcal per minute of work. At the same time, a specific task requires no more than 1% of the energy of the entire thought process. So, for a specific task for 10 minutes the brain spends:

0.01 (1%) x (10 minutes x 0.25 kcal/min) = 0.025 kcal.

That’s a relatively small amount. But in practice, energy expenditure varies greatly. For example, a professional chess player can burn up to 560 kcal in a two-hour game. That’s almost the same as spending an hour on a treadmill.

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