Why are people who do mental work more prone to weight gain? The brain prefers glucose.

5. Why are mental workers more prone to weight gain?

One day, a friend's colleague asked her, "Isn't mental work considered work? Does physical labor burn fat?"

"Fat, then what do we use for mental work?" she asked. She replied, "Probably glucose." Then that colleague...

She asked, "I've used up glucose, so why can't I lose weight?" She was stumped by the question and came to ask me.

In fact, quite a few people are confused about this issue. For example, every year when it's time to prepare for postgraduate entrance exams or professional certification exams...

During this season, many girls worry about gaining weight. On the one hand, they feel particularly hungry during studying.

They can't concentrate on reading without eating something; on the other hand, they find that they gain weight around their stomachs particularly easily at this time.

Meat. Why is that?

There's a reason for this, of course; the secret lies in the brain's "special appetite." The brain and the entire nervous system...

They all have their own "sweet taste," they have an extreme preference for glucose, rely on glucose for energy, and dislike...

Use fat.

Once blood glucose levels drop to a certain level, the brain's efficiency decreases.

Symptoms include difficulty concentrating, slow thinking, and drowsiness. If glucose supply is severely insufficient, large...

When the brain goes on strike, we experience blurred vision, loss of consciousness, or even coma due to low blood sugar.

In contrast, muscles are less "picky" about their glucose intake. While muscles also prioritize glucose, the amount of glucose in the blood...

When glucose levels are low, they are more willing to switch sources and rely on burning fat for energy. This is especially true during sprinting.

It consumes blood sugar, but because the total amount of blood sugar is limited and glycogen reserves are also small, it needs to be reserved for the brain, so it doesn't...

You can use it freely. Muscle tissue is quite good at "taking the big picture" so that it mainly burns fat during long-distance running.

Therefore, as long as you persist in long-distance running or brisk walking, the weight loss effect is quite good.

What if you need to study for exams, or do other high-intensity mental activities all day long? The brain requires...

To produce glucose, blood sugar levels must be adequately supplied. Once blood sugar levels drop to a certain point due to the brain's use of it, the body...

It feels like hunger strikes, and my appetite increases. So, when I'm using my brain intensively, I get hungry more easily and want to eat more.

Starchy foods or high-energy foods such as sweets.

You might ask, if the brain uses up all the glucose, how can I still gain weight? What does the body use to synthesize glucose?

What about fat?

The problem is that meals naturally contain fat, and muscles are not used much during exam preparation.

Exercise burns very little fat, and the brain doesn't use that fat, so the carbohydrates in food are converted into...

While glucose can be prioritized for metabolism, insufficient physical activity makes it easy for fat intake from meals to lead to weight gain.

"Yu" has become the fat on the body.

The worst-case scenario is eating high glycemic index (GI) foods, such as refined grains.

White, soft starchy foods, as well as various sweets, rapidly raise blood sugar levels. Excessively high blood sugar then forces the body to...

A batch of insulin is deployed. Insulin is supposed to drive most of the glucose into muscle cells, storing it as muscle glycogen, or through...

Exercise burns calories, but many mental laborers already have underdeveloped muscles, and their physical activity levels are far too low, leading to muscle fatigue.

Insulin's ability to absorb glucose is limited, so some glucose is used to synthesize fat. (This is one of the functions of insulin.)

One effect is inhibiting fat breakdown and promoting fat synthesis. Therefore, people with poor blood sugar control are prone to weight gain.

It's hard to lose weight.

We often see this situation at school: female students who were originally quite frail, after a period of preparing for postgraduate entrance exams...

Studying often leads to weight gain; those PhDs and professors who are busy with meetings and writing project reports all day long often have bellies.

It's getting more and more "bloated"... and that's why.

Some might ask: "Looking at the portraits of historical figures, scholars and poets all appear ethereal and otherworldly; history..."

Those great scholars of our time all seem to be on the thin side; how come they haven't gained weight? Our current academic...

Why are so many scholars and professors overweight and obese?

Ultimately, the main difference between us and the ancients lies in the abundance of food and the convenience of our lives. The ancients...

There were no processed foods, no ready-to-eat meals, no gas stoves or microwaves, no rice cookers or ovens. They wanted...

Preparing a meal is quite troublesome; it takes a considerable amount of time from lighting the fire to cooking. There are no cookies or cakes between meals.

There were potato chips, but no desserts... so unless you're a wealthy person with a multitude of servants, getting three meals a day is already quite an achievement.

Yi, even after using her brain, gets hungry more easily, and there are no snacks to eat between meals, so she has to tough it out. As long as...

Eating a little bit of delicious food fills me with happiness, prompting me to write articles and poems to commemorate it. Living such a life naturally makes it difficult for my health.

Gaining weight.

Now that we understand the underlying principles, how can we avoid this situation caused by using our brains too much and our bodies too little?

Obesity isn't actually that difficult to achieve. On one hand, it's important to change unhealthy lifestyle habits like lack of exercise and to get at least half an hour of physical activity every day.

Hours. Sharpening your axe before chopping wood is essential; after exercise, blood circulation throughout the body is improved, and the brain receives ample blood and oxygen.

Post-meal drowsiness and the urge to sleep as soon as I start thinking are completely gone; my learning efficiency is actually higher, and my work performance is also better.

Natural is better. On the other hand, it's important to avoid a rapid rise in post-meal blood sugar and to keep blood sugar within the normal range.

There's no need to mobilize a large army of insulin for an emergency. One solution is to eat foods that are digested slowly and have a low glycemic index.

The first option is to replace white rice and white flour with whole grains, along with a sufficient amount of vegetables and a small amount of meat, eggs, and dairy products. The second option is to...

Eat more frequent meals, reduce the amount of staple food during the three main meals, and add some fruit or yogurt two hours after meals to make blood sugar fluctuations more manageable.

gentle.

For all the students who are busy studying for exams, and for all the white-collar workers who often work overtime, you might want to consider these solutions.

Give it a try.