As part of my digression into the effects of exercise, I tested the effect of a 15-minute walk (= on a treadmill at about 2.8 miles/hour) twice more. Here are the results:
Here is the result (posted earlier) of the first test:
Here is a test of a 40-minute walk:
What do I learn from all this? For my omega-3 experiments, which might cover 6 hours, I should keep the walking involved under 15 minutes. If I want to get some sort of mental benefit from walking, I should spend 40 minutes or more. Less obvious is this: I take these results to indicate the existence of a mechanism that “turns up” our brain when we are doing stuff and turns it “down” when we are inactive. This suggests what Stone-Age activity consisted of: more than 15 minutes of walking. This also suggests that whatever the benefits of exercise, they require more than 15 minutes of walking to obtain.
The practical question these results raise is how to use this effect to help me with what I do all day — most of which, such as writing, seems to be incompatible with walking. Walking breaks every few hours? What about running 10 minutes every few hours?
Gary Taubes’ new book on food and weight comes out today. Taubes agrees with what I say in The Shangri-La Diet: Exercise is a poor way to lose weight. The results above provide a different reason to exercise, of course. But the details should change. My impression is that most people focus on burning calories; whereas these results suggest choosing exercise that best produces this reaction-time-lowering effect.
Hello, this is a very interesting and important finding.
I think I would choose running 10 minutes on the spot (better on a rubber mat). The problem is sweat. Not good for when you are at the office.
Instead of coffee machines there should be places to walk and exercise at work.
No wonder a school of philosophy is called “peripatetic”. The greek walked to think. Maybe for a different reason, it seems that when you put your body to work or in movement your mind is more free of tensions. But it could also be due to what you describe here.
That’s a good point about the peripatetic philosophers.
I have found that interviews go much better if we walk rather than sit.
Gary Taubes’ diet recommendations sound similar to SLD and especially Dr. Atkins diet.
Did anyone really disprove Dr. Atkins? I know there was a giant backlash against him with people distastefully making fun of how fat he was when he died.
Didn’t Atkins start all of this? or at least popularized the idea that Seth and Gary Taubes seem to agree with: the type of food one eats, NOT THE AMOUNT OF CALORIES, matters.
Wow! really interesting and amazing research, i just got surprised by looking at this. Instead of coffee machines there should be places to walk and exercise at work.
Matthew…
…Basically put, how long does the support for your new treadmill last?…..
Matthew, I don’t understand your question.
what great research…great information