Why can’t we burn more or less calories by working our brain when it already uses a fifth of our daily energy usage?

514 views

Hello,

So my question is, our body uses a certain amount of energy through the day and 20% of that is used exclusively by the brain.

Why can’t we increase or decrease the calorie usage of our minds to burn more or less calories?

My own theory is that the brain runs on a base threshold of energy and it normally is around 20% but it doesn’t explain why doing brain teasers/puzzles doesn’t increase it.

And bonus if you can explain how doing extremely challenging problems for any amount of time makes you feel physically tired (such as taking a test).

Edit: there have been a amazing amount of answers while I was asleep (posted this before sleeping for a solid 10 hours), my questions about the brain functionality has been answered

In: 7004

21 Answers

Anonymous 0 Comments

Much of the heat loss comes from the need to keep your brain at a nice constant temperature, coupled with it being relatively exposed.

Your brain is more like a computer/microprocessor, with a pretty simple set of power-saving modes, so while you might burn a few more calories through mental effort, the heat loss / maintenance of temperature is far more significant.

You are viewing 1 out of 21 answers, click here to view all answers.