Calorie Counting

The tripe in our heads, the grey stuff that controls every conscious and unconscious thought and action, requires energy to function: it is a calorie burner. Inspired by this thought, some bright spark has attempted to discover exactly how many calories the brain burns when it is engaged in its various activities; for example, solving sudoku.

Brain training website, cannyminds.com, claims that solving sudoku can burn up to 90 calories an hour. That sounds pretty good to me. In fact, it's my kind of diet. Armchair exercise, you can't beat it. Sudoku is much more effortful than watching TV (68 calories per hour) and 'quiet' sleeping (61 calories per hour).

On the other hand, caloriecount.about.com tells me that dusting burns 170 calories per hour. Dusting? I don't want to hear that! Washing the dishes for an hour burns 156 calories. That's enough stats, please! It seems sudoku isn't going to be the next essential diet.

Except that isn't the whole story. Oh, no, there's a lot more to consider. You might not have heard of calorie offsetting, but you have to admit it has a trendy ring to it. It turns out that an hour's worth of solving sudoku will offset a chocolate chip cookie (56 calories) or a custard cream (79 calories) or even a small glass of wine (89 calories). So sudoku is good for you, after all. I'll drink to that!