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#1
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Lose Weight by Thinking???
It is noted in "The Math Gene" that the human brain comprises only 2% of body weight but consumes 20% of available energy. Does that mean one burns a lot of calories thinking??? "Hard thoughts," anyway -- like, I dunno, calculus or Zen koans. Seriously, what of it? Talk about your mind-body connection! I seem to have a very high metabolism, and I wonder if that's got any relation to my being lost in my thoughts all the time.... They say visualization may well be important for muscle growth, like how it seems to be a factor in physical performance...could there be something like this to weight loss and mental activity? How many calories does the brain burn on its own any given hour, anyway?? |
#2
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Lose Weight by Thinking???
NYC XYZ wrote: It is noted in "The Math Gene" that the human brain comprises only 2% of body weight but consumes 20% of available energy. Does that mean one burns a lot of calories thinking??? "Hard thoughts," anyway -- like, I dunno, calculus or Zen koans. Seriously, what of it? Talk about your mind-body connection! I seem to have a very high metabolism, and I wonder if that's got any relation to my being lost in my thoughts all the time.... They say visualization may well be important for muscle growth, like how it seems to be a factor in physical performance...could there be something like this to weight loss and mental activity? How many calories does the brain burn on its own any given hour, anyway?? Yes, you can lose weight by thinking...just keep thinking how you aren't going to overeat. It does take energy to think, but not much. Hyperactive people whose brains are constantly racing do burn more calories, but it is the physical activity that accompanies their mental activity that burns the extra calories. Let's put it this way. By far, the most important thing for weight control is caloric intake. A distant second is exercise, followed by metabolic rate at the bottom and almost everything else like thinking deep thoughts doesn't even make the list. dkw |
#3
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Lose Weight by Thinking???
"NYC XYZ" wrote in message ps.com... It is noted in "The Math Gene" that the human brain comprises only 2% of body weight but consumes 20% of available energy. Does that mean one burns a lot of calories thinking??? One's brain does a lot of things, like regulate breathing, heart rate, blood pressure, see, hear, tells us when we need to doo-doo or pee, makes us smile when a sexy someone comes into view, and lets us do math, science, writing and remember stuff. So it does far more than just think. The brain uses around one double-cheeseburger's or Quarter Pounder's with cheese worth of energy to power the brain for a day. That's around 450 or 500 calories a day. 450 calories per day is equal to about 22 W or around 1/4 of what a 100 W light bulb uses. I would guess about 1/4 of this 22 W is used for what would be called thinking. In comparison, my Intel Centrino (R) uses around 12 W, which is considerablely less than other Intel Pentium chips. But, unlike my brain, the Centrino (R) does not have much memory, a video processor, audio processor, the ability to feel pain, emotions or pleasure. And, unlike my brain, Intels tend to crash often, like when running Windows(R). Considering the complexity of the computations that the brain does, the fact that the brain does multiprocessing very well, the brain is more energy efficent. Jeff \ "Hard thoughts," anyway -- like, I dunno, calculus or Zen koans. Seriously, what of it? Talk about your mind-body connection! I seem to have a very high metabolism, and I wonder if that's got any relation to my being lost in my thoughts all the time.... They say visualization may well be important for muscle growth, like how it seems to be a factor in physical performance...could there be something like this to weight loss and mental activity? How many calories does the brain burn on its own any given hour, anyway?? |
#4
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Lose Weight by Thinking???
On Sun, 19 Nov 2006, NYC XYZ wrote:
It is noted in "The Math Gene" that the human brain comprises only 2% of body weight but consumes 20% of available energy. Does that mean one burns a lot of calories thinking??? Yes. And not only thinking, but feeling, seeing, moving, and doing any of the myriad other jobs your brain does. I had been under the impression that neurons' energy use was independent of their actual activity, since it was required to maintain the ion gradients they depend on, but having through it through, that doesn't make any sense. A look at the literature confirms this; people have done some hard thinking about the energy consumption of neurons, fo' izzinstance: http://www.pnb.sunysb.edu/mci/JC/6-15/Crotty.pdf In a foreshadowing of modern microprocessor design, it turns out the brain probably evolved not only to maximise performance, but to minimise energy consumption. tom -- Change happens with ball-flattening speed. -- Thomas Edison |
#5
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Lose Weight by Thinking???
Tom Anderson wrote: Yes. And not only thinking, but feeling, seeing, moving, and doing any of the myriad other jobs your brain does. I had been under the impression that neurons' energy use was independent of their actual activity, since it was required to maintain the ion gradients they depend on, but having through it through, that doesn't make any sense. A look at the literature confirms this; people have done some hard thinking about the energy consumption of neurons, fo' izzinstance: http://www.pnb.sunysb.edu/mci/JC/6-15/Crotty.pdf In a foreshadowing of modern microprocessor design, it turns out the brain probably evolved not only to maximise performance, but to minimise energy consumption. tom -- Change happens with ball-flattening speed. -- Thomas Edison But then I don't get it, guys -- the claim is that 2% of body weight consumes 20% of body energy. It may be "efficient," given the returns, but that's still a substantial chunk in absolute terms. So in theory, it seems like one should be able to lose weight by doing calculus! What hidden, lurking/confounding variable(s) may be at play in the background preventing drastic weight loss? Or is it that muscles use up an even greater percentage of body energy, so that in absolute terms weight loss still has to come from physically rigorous activity? (Though, given the mind-body connection, does it even make sense to speak of a mental-physical distinction here? After all, insofar as the brain is physically-based, any brain activity is, ultimately, physical activity....) |
#6
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Lose Weight by Thinking???
"Prisoner at War" wrote in message ups.com... Tom Anderson wrote: Yes. And not only thinking, but feeling, seeing, moving, and doing any of the myriad other jobs your brain does. I had been under the impression that neurons' energy use was independent of their actual activity, since it was required to maintain the ion gradients they depend on, but having through it through, that doesn't make any sense. A look at the literature confirms this; people have done some hard thinking about the energy consumption of neurons, fo' izzinstance: http://www.pnb.sunysb.edu/mci/JC/6-15/Crotty.pdf In a foreshadowing of modern microprocessor design, it turns out the brain probably evolved not only to maximise performance, but to minimise energy consumption. tom -- Change happens with ball-flattening speed. -- Thomas Edison But then I don't get it, guys -- the claim is that 2% of body weight consumes 20% of body energy. It may be "efficient," given the returns, but that's still a substantial chunk in absolute terms. So in theory, it seems like one should be able to lose weight by doing calculus! What hidden, lurking/confounding variable(s) may be at play in the background preventing drastic weight loss? Or is it that muscles use up an even greater percentage of body energy, so that in absolute terms weight loss still has to come from physically rigorous activity? (Though, given the mind-body connection, does it even make sense to speak of a mental-physical distinction here? After all, insofar as the brain is physically-based, any brain activity is, ultimately, physical activity....) Making the assumption that the amount of conscious mental activity has any significant relation to the amount of energy consumed by the brain strikes me as dubious, when you consider that the amount of the brain used in doing so is quite small. Go deer hunting so you are forced to remain alert and watching carefully for the smallest of movements and listening for small sounds. It will have just as much or more effect. You don't even have to take a weapon, if you don't want to. :-) del |
#7
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Lose Weight by Thinking???
On Sun, 19 Nov 2006, Del Cecchi wrote:
"Prisoner at War" wrote in message ups.com... Tom Anderson wrote: Yes. And not only thinking, but feeling, seeing, moving, and doing any of the myriad other jobs your brain does. But then I don't get it, guys -- the claim is that 2% of body weight consumes 20% of body energy. It may be "efficient," given the returns, but that's still a substantial chunk in absolute terms. So in theory, it seems like one should be able to lose weight by doing calculus! What hidden, lurking/confounding variable(s) may be at play in the background preventing drastic weight loss? Making the assumption that the amount of conscious mental activity has any significant relation to the amount of energy consumed by the brain strikes me as dubious, when you consider that the amount of the brain used in doing so is quite small. That's the thing. If you could figure out a way to get all of your brain firing at once, you might be able to do it - perhaps doing long division in your head while ballet dancing with a girl you're in love with, and trying to remember her name. Christ, i'm starting to sound like xkcd: http://xkcd.com/ tom -- tiny des |
#8
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Lose Weight by Thinking???
Prisoner at War wrote:
Tom Anderson wrote: Yes. And not only thinking, but feeling, seeing, moving, and doing any of the myriad other jobs your brain does. I had been under the impression that neurons' energy use was independent of their actual activity, since it was required to maintain the ion gradients they depend on, but having through it through, that doesn't make any sense. A look at the literature confirms this; people have done some hard thinking about the energy consumption of neurons, fo' izzinstance: http://www.pnb.sunysb.edu/mci/JC/6-15/Crotty.pdf In a foreshadowing of modern microprocessor design, it turns out the brain probably evolved not only to maximise performance, but to minimise energy consumption. tom -- Change happens with ball-flattening speed. -- Thomas Edison But then I don't get it, guys -- the claim is that 2% of body weight consumes 20% of body energy. It may be "efficient," given the returns, but that's still a substantial chunk in absolute terms. So in theory, it seems like one should be able to lose weight by doing calculus! What hidden, lurking/confounding variable(s) may be at play in the background preventing drastic weight loss? "Thinking" is the smallest part of the brain's function. When you're typing, for example, more brain function goes into handling the fingers, visual and tactile feedback, etc , than into the composition of the "thought." Processing sensory inputs and handling shifts in attention take more brain function than "thinking." And so it goes. It's a common mistake to think that thinking takes a lot of energy, probably because for all of us most of the time and for most all of the time "thinking' feels like it takes effort. Calculus is "hard to do", but brain scans of people who are good at math show that it actually takes less brain power than watching a movie. (People who are bad at math use a lot more brain power, apparently on irrelevant and distracting "thoughts" that get in the way of doing it well.) Easy - hard is not the same as simple - complex. HTH |
#9
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Lose Weight by Thinking???
"NYC XYZ" skrev i melding ps.com... It is noted in "The Math Gene" that the human brain comprises only 2% of body weight but consumes 20% of available energy. No. Only when the body is at complete rest. When logging timber at -45, the proportion decreases somewhat ... Google for "brain energy consumption", and you will find some good scientific articles among the first hits. T |
#10
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Lose Weight by Thinking???
"Tom Anderson" wrote in message h.li... On Sun, 19 Nov 2006, NYC XYZ wrote: It is noted in "The Math Gene" that the human brain comprises only 2% of body weight but consumes 20% of available energy. Does that mean one burns a lot of calories thinking??? Yes. And not only thinking, but feeling, seeing, moving, and doing any of the myriad other jobs your brain does. I had been under the impression that neurons' energy use was independent of their actual activity, since it was required to maintain the ion gradients they depend on, but having through it through, that doesn't make any sense. A look at the literature confirms this; people have done some hard thinking about the energy consumption of neurons, fo' izzinstance: http://www.pnb.sunysb.edu/mci/JC/6-15/Crotty.pdf In a foreshadowing of modern microprocessor design, it turns out the brain probably evolved not only to maximise performance, but to minimise energy consumption. tom Yet the brain only uses about 450 or so calories per day. If you're thinking, you're not paying as much attention to visual stimulation, auditory stimulation, etc. So while some neurons will burn more glucose, other parts will burn less energy. I really doubt that heavy-duty thinking will result in enough additional calories to increase weight loss. Jeff -- Change happens with ball-flattening speed. -- Thomas Edison |
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