[christofd]

Actually, intense thinking, as I recall, burns a lot of calories.

The trick is diet, as mentioned on here (next to moderate levels of exercise). Eat mostly veggies, rice, pasta, avocados, fruit. Drink water and no pop.

The other thing: look up glycemic index of foods. The easier it is for the body to turn something into sugar (processed foods, e.g. white bread), the more likely the body will create an insulin rush, which wrecks havoc by flipping a switch to make your body store fat. Many people don't know about this fact.

[nathos]

The fruit, rice and pasta are pretty high up on the glycemic index.

[kingnothing]

Pasta isn't a high GI food.

"Q: Why does pasta have a low GI?

A: Pasta has a low GI because of the physical entrapment of ungelatinised starch granules in a sponge-like network of protein (gluten) molecules in the pasta dough. Pasta is unique in this regard. As a result, pastas of any shape and size have a fairly low GI (30 to 60). Asian noodles such as hokkein, udon and rice vermicelli also have low to intermediate GI values."

from http://www.glycemicindex.com/faqprint.htm

As a reference for anyone unfamiliar with the glycemic index, a piece of white bread is typically set to be at 100, and lower is better.