Does studying burn calories?!

alexroet

I spent 12h today with my butt planted firmly in a chair, studying. I ate my usual 1200 cal throughout the day, but my exercise level was the same as watching tv ALL day. In fact I moved LESS than I would at a normal day at work.

But at the end of the day I was STARVING. And yes I'd been snacking/eating small meals all along. Usually 1200cal satisfies me unless I've been exercising a lot.

Does just using my brain more than usual actually burn significant calories?!

I feel like that's a ridiculous question, except that it sort of makes sense to me...

We were also put in the "hot seat" a lot, and nerves kicked in, HR went through the roof... Is that "cardio" even though no muscles were involved?!

queenpushycat

lol that's a good question. Even though I didn't move my butt while studying, I'm sure it killed a lot of my brain cells :P

1a1a

I suspect the answer to both will be no but am interested to hear what others say. I always found myself wanting more food when studying too, I wonder if now I would head that off with some sort of short burst of cardio...(if still hungry after that, at least I would have some exercise cals to play with).

Random additional thought, I have heard fellow studiers speak very highly of the benefits of green shakes to get them through their research - tastes, not that great, boost of energy, amazing.

jwelch7290

That's a really good question...I want to know too...b/c I spend a ton of my time studying and sitting in classes all week. There are a ton of students on the website so I hope someone can tell us whether its true or not!

whisperingdragon

I don't know. I've been sitting here since 6 pm writing a paper, and feeling hungrier than usual. I think it's just in my head, since I hate writing papers, I try to find pleasure and food comes to my mind first.

wolfchild59

Sorry, no. No matter how hard I think, concentrate or generally use my brain my calories burned per minute don't go up. In fact, sometimes they drop a tad because when get super focused I move less than normal.

The desire to eat is probably more of a mental trigger than an actual hunger trigger.

Oh, and I have a BodyMedia Fit and spend way too much time looking at my daily charts when I have the time and I go back and check for stuff like this regularly.

Malissas

haha I really want to know too! When I work all day sitting down, I am not as hungry (or tired) as those days when I'm studying.
All I know is when youre studying you need more low gi carbs and omega 3.
How great would it be if your body burnt it all up just by concentrating!

Pebble321

Sure - but so does eating, sitting, sleeping, walking around......
It is accounted for in your daily activity level so it's not extra "exercise calories" that you can add and eat back

if you are extra hungry then eat a bit more - 1200 is very low anyway, you probably have a pretty big defecit so eating an extra 100 or 200 occasionally isn't going to change things much.

potionphoenix

Whatever you do, calories are burning. It just depends how much of them. For example, on a person who weighs 165 pounds for an hour of studying 140 calories are burnt and while just sitting or resting, 70 calories. So, yeah.

alexroet

I dunno... I think it's possible that your BMR goes up. For example - ICU/burn patients' nutritional requirements are at least 1.5x that of healthy ppl, even though they're "just laying there" bc of (in part) a massive stress response, cortisol surge, etc.

Of course I'm not comparing myself to a burn patient- just saying there's more that goes in to the "calories burned" side of the equation than muscle activity.

And it's hard to accurately measure BMR without doing calorimetry, so we rely on estimates...

(I'm a surgeon and I'm at a course studying for my oral boards, which is certainly pretty high-stress. Maybe tomorrow I'll ask around. It's not something taught in med school, but maybe someone will know.)

But at the end of the day it's just trivia. It's not like I'm going to try to log hours of studying as exercise.

I guess we'll see what the scale shows this week...

chocolateandvodka

i can give you a scientific answer for this, but it hurts to think at the moment...

alexroet

Whatever you do, calories are burning. It just depends how much of them. For example, on a person who weighs 165 pounds for an hour of studying 140 calories are burnt and while just sitting or resting, 70 calories. So, yeah.

Where do you get those numbers?

Oishii

I googled this because my weight tends to drop when I'm sedentary for two days each time I do this course I'm on. It may be calorie burn, but I suspect it's just that my stomach processes food better because I'm not constantly putting other demands on it: basically I poo more!

wriglucy

Nope...I wish it did though! I'd be losing weight like crazy then!

Cassiopeia00

It's funny that this post came up, as I have been noticing since being in school that my 1200 calorie a day diet was leaving me starving, even though I wasn't changing a thing except studying/school work. I would say that the extra effort you push on your brain cells during such a time uses extra energy, and thus *technically* does burn calories, but not to the extent I think we would all like But it would explain why you require more fuel during these times to keep yourself going.

grrrlface

It won't burn anymore calories than if you're just sitting around all day... I don't think your brain needs extra calories to function, it maybe just needs the right nutrition? Maybe that's why you get hungry? Just my thoughts.

I sip water all the time when I'm studying, it stops cravings.

PinkAndSparkle

I used to get SO hungry studying in grad school. It was the worst because I couldnt concentrate until I ate!

cpotter4

Sure you are burning calories because of the BMR and all that. But the other question asked is why are you more hungry when studying. I have found that:

1.) Studying is boring (well it depends on the subject). When bored, what is usually the top things that, as Americans, we do to keep our hands occupied? Eat. Our body realizes this after 15, 20, 30 years that we eat when we study and we trigger signals saying "hey I'm hungry!" more because it is used to eating when you study. Just like when we go to a fair. Even if you eat a big, healthy meal right before you go to the fair, you get hungry when you are there and will probably end up indulging a little anyway.

and...

2.) Studying can be tiring. How many times have you sat for several hours without moving and then struggled to stay awake just because you are sitting still for so long? Staying up late into the night studying also makes you tired. When you are tired your body craves fuel to make it wake up. For this reason, when I study, my body typically craves sweets and breads (which break down into sugars). This is why late night snacks are so common. How many people have a bowl of ice cream at 10 at night, even though we know we are not supposed to eat late or to eat sugar before bed?

ElizabethRoad

.

potionphoenix

I found the numbers on a page online

dls06

Wishful thinking I think.