Have you ever thought that solving sudoku could be a sport? Games help you burn calories even when sitting in an armchair or solving them in the office.
In an attempt to attract more visitors, the owners of a site that sells memory and mental agility games, announced that such activities help to lose weight. Even if you do not burn as many calories as a workout at the gym, the game requires an effort on the part of the brain, so it provides an increased rate of calorie burning!
Just to “survive”, the human brain burns 0.1 calories per minute, and if you solve sudoku, crosswords, puzzles or other games like that, the brain starts to burn 1.5 calories per minute. In an hour you can get to 90 calories burned.
The brain consists of billions of nerve cells – neurons, which transmit messages to the body via neurotransmitter substances. But for that, the neurons require glucose, calories and oxygen.
“The brain works like any other body part. If it works hard it needs more energy, so it consumes calories” , say researchers.
The sellers of the games mental agility games say that you can easily get slimmer by solving puzzles, if this activity is combined with a mild diet.
But not everyone agrees with that. Specialists from the British Nutrition Association say that, indeed calorie intake is greater when we think hard, but it is impossible to lose weight this way. Diet and sport remain the only ways to lose weight according to them.
