http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/howaboutthat/4043727/Too-much-thinking-can-make-you-fat.html

Researchers found the stress of thinking caused overeating with heavy thinkers seeking out more calories.

The research team, supervised by Dr Angelo Tremblay, measured the spontaneous food intake of 14 students after each of three tasks.

The first was relaxing in a sitting position, the second reading and summarizing a text, and finally completing a series of memory, attention, and vigilance tests on the computer.

After 45 minutes at each activity, participants were invited to eat as much as they wanted from a buffet.

The researchers had already discovered that each session of intellectual work requires only three calories more than the rest period.

However, despite the low energy cost of mental work, the students spontaneously consumed 203 more calories after summarizing a text and 253 more calories after the computer tests.

This represents a 23.6 per cent and 29.4 per cent increase, respectively, compared with the rest period.

Blood samples taken before, during, and after each session revealed that intellectual work causes much bigger fluctuations in glucose and insulin levels than rest periods.

Jean-Philippe Chaput, the study's main author, said: "These fluctuations may be caused by the stress of intellectual work, or also reflect a biological adaptation during glucose combustion."

The body could be reacting to these fluctuations by spurring food intake in order to restore its glucose balance, the only fuel used by the brain.

Mr Chaput added: "Caloric overcompensation following intellectual work, combined with the fact we are less physically active when doing intellectual tasks, could contribute to the obesity epidemic currently observed in industrialised countries.

"This is a factor that should not be ignored, considering that more and more people hold jobs of an intellectual nature."

The results of the study, carried out at Universite Laval in Quebec, Canada, are published in the journal Psychosomatic Medicine.

http://th02.deviantart.com/fs15/150/i/2007/088/7/2/Shikamaru_by_Dragon_jade.jpg
By the study's own accord, it's not the thinking in itself that compells you to eat more, but stress.

There are times when you can be in deep thought but not stressed about it. Albeit that's very rare in day to day living, but it happens..

Evidently everything causes you to get fat. Overeating, crappy metabolism, stress, poor diet, lack of excersise.

Just try to lose weight for your own personal gratification. Don't worry about your health. Hate to spoil the ending for you, but you die anyway.

The moral of the story is to get out, get regular exercise at an appropriate level, eat sensibly and whetever you do...

...don't spend every day thinking about it - Just do it.

Regular exercise is good for an individual but bad for environment. :(

tallowood wrote on Jan 27^th, 2009 at 10:02pm:

Regular exercise is good for an individual but bad for environment. :(

?

That comment has me bemused too.

Regular exercise means that you are less likely to require medical intervention. Such treatment is costly in all respects, including the environment. Cycling or walking to work is also better in terms of carbon emissions.

I used to walk and pick up litter at the same time.

I swim and pick up fish at the same time  :D

muso wrote on Jan 28^th, 2009 at 3:29pm:

That comment has me bemused too. Regular exercise means that you are less likely to require medical intervention. Such treatment is costly in all respects, including the environment. Cycling or walking to work is also better in terms of carbon emissions. I used to walk and pick up litter at the same time.

Is it because you don't think? 8-)

Anyway, I'll explain. While you do physical exercise you produce more CO2 the couch potato does. Is extra CO2 good for the crisis of confidence in environmental "science"?

The CO2 you produce effectively came from the atmosphere very recently.

freediver wrote on Jan 28^th, 2009 at 9:51pm:

The CO2 you produce effectively came from the atmosphere very recently.

and a physical exercise produce more of it then mental one.

Quote:

and a physical exercise produce more of it then mental one

Are you making this up as you go along?

freediver wrote on Jan 28^th, 2009 at 10:29pm:

Quote: and a physical exercise produce more of it then mental one Are you making this up as you go along?

No. Consider the physiology of breathing.

Your statement falls down on basic logic, well before you get to physiology.

freediver wrote on Jan 29^th, 2009 at 8:56am:

Your statement falls down on basic logic, well before you get to physiology.

Prove it.

It's not obvious? Maybe what you meant to say is different from what you actually said.

freediver wrote on Jan 29^th, 2009 at 9:11am:

It's not obvious? Maybe what you meant to say is different from what you actually said.

Of course it is obvious. "a physical exercise produce more of CO2 then mental one".

OK I'll give you a hint. For starters, you appear to be assuming that the metabolic load for each is fixed.

I do not assume such thing. If you disagree with my statement that a physical activity results in more CO2 then thinking give me an example. Muslim prayer doesn't count as it is opposite to thinking.