Playing Chess Burns Calories

There’s a brilliant new talk on TED.com by Stanford Professor of Neurology Robert Sapolsky on the uniqueness of human beings.

Among other smashing revelations, he shares a different way to burn calories:

Playing chess.

Or, for that matter, exercising the brain.

“… [with] chess masters in the middle of a tournament, they are going through six to seven thousand calories a day thinking. [They are] turning on a massive physiological stress response simply with thought and doing the same thing with their bodies as if they were some baboon that’s just ripped open the stomach of their worst rival — it’s all with thought.”

Of course, these competitors play for full days, so playing one game of chess will not burn thousands of calories.

Engaging your brain more often will help to burn up some marginal fat:

• Tackle analytical problems at work
• Read about game theory
• Learn a new language
• Do a crossword puzzle

Announcement: We’re going to be speaking at the Toronto IamYoga studio about Burning Fat at Work on March 3rd, 2010. We’ll be sharing the podium with a Team Canada athlete who will talk about Olympic Workouts. The cost is $10, or $5 if you are an S-Drive member. Sign up here.