The Sudoku diet

Sitting in your favourite armchair doing a crossword or Sudoku does not sound like a particularly effective way to use up calories.

But .... [t]ackling puzzles for an hour, it seems, can burn more calories than are contained in many biscuits. ... Doing puzzles and quizzes burns an average of 90 calories every hour, they say - while a chocolate chip cookie contains an average 56 calories, a custard cream 57 calories and a jammy dodger 85 calories.

Researcher Tim Forrester, from cannyminds.com, explained: 'Our brains require 0.1 calories every minute simply to survive. When we do something challenging such as a puzzle or a quiz we can burn through 1.5 calories every minute.'

- Excerpted from The Daily Mail