Although you do burn more calories during intense cognitive tasks, the difference isn’t really that big in the grand scheme of things.
Our brains use about 320 calories every day. A person doing something cognitively challenging (watching T.V., reading, daydreaming) for eight hours straight can burn an extra 100 calories, and if you incorporate multiple senses along with it (learning an instrument, maybe), that could get up to 200 calories.
For 8 hours of intense effort, you’d burn fewer calories than if you just walked two miles.
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