Optimizing Workouts for Intellectual Performance

So this year I've stopped working out, and my grades have improved drastically, but at the cost of losing muscle mass and gaining fat, and becoming physically slower and lazier just as I became faster and more active intellectually. One effect I especially noticed was the disappearance of that perpetual state of happiness/satisfaction that comes from frequent physical exertion, which I think had a tendency to get in the way of a feeling of urgency regarding studies; why bother with tiresome and frustrating intellectual exercise when physical exercise yielded results and pleasure/satisfaction much more easily and reliably?

Are you sure there isn't another factor causing improved grades? My impression was that it was pretty well-established that exercise improves mental performance.

Or possibly it's the amount of time you spent exercising, which gave you less time to do other things? Were you spending a lot of time working out? If so, you may want to look into high-intensity interval training to get the benefits of physical exercise in as little time as possible.

Another idea: save your workouts for the end of the day, so you don't have the post-workout feeling all day and will still feel like you need to get stuff done?

I've been giving this a lot of thought as well lately. I think the people to follow here are chess players: they have to maintain intense mental concentration on a set of difficult problems for games that can last seven hours. Then they have to review the game and prepare for the game the next day, which might be another seven-hour marathon. Chess players talk a lot about the importance of physical fitness for maintaining high-level tournament performance.

Emulating chess players might be more efficient than looking into the research. Maybe someone who is willing to put a lot of time and effort into carefully reading hundreds of studies and doing all the necessary background research could come up with something optimal for their body, but it's a lot easier to just copy chess players and might not yield much worse results. Chess players are trying to win in a highly competitive system that gives them quick and unambiguous feedback about their performance, after all, which could easily mean better incentives and selection effects than what you get in academic research or individual intellectual's attempts to optimize their own intellectual performance for goals more far-off and abstract than victory in tomorrow's game.

Swimming and tennis seem to be popular choices for chess players to stay fit. Obviously the goal is stamina and not muscle, though.

this is probably highly individual since I expect mood and stress effects to dominate minor physiological variation from different schemes.

Diet wise try intermittent fasting, lots of people see mental performance benefits. Be sure to get enough potassium and some saturated fats (whole milk is unambiguously good for lowering CVD rates). Vitamin D also has nootropic effects for people when recovering from deficiency. I recommend the version with K2, which lowers tooth decay incidence.

Good Calories Bad Calories is science journalism, not a diet book. Skip to the end if you want to know Taubes' recommendations, or just get the New Atkins for a New You, which is a diet book. Short version of Taubes' recommendations, which are essentially the same as Atkins, LCHF, Paleo, and other low-carb plans:

1. No sugar (including HFCS, Agave Nectar, honey, fruit juice, etc.)
2. No rice
3. No corn
4. No wheat or grains
5. No potatoes
6. Avoid all products labelled low-fat; e.g. skim milk, yogurt, cottage cheese, margarine, etc.

Different plans vary a bit--fruit or no fruit, milk or no milk, beans or no beans, cured meats or no cured meats--but that covers the essentials.

Any thoughts about the intellectual effects of relatively simple (running, weight-lifting) movement vs. complex (martial arts, rock-climbing)?

One effect I especially noticed was the disappearance of that perpetual state of happiness/satisfaction that comes from frequent physical exertion, which I think had a tendency to get in the way of a feeling of urgency regarding studies

Interestingly, I've had the exact opposite experience; working out relaxes me from which I observe an increased productivity. Perhaps the resultant change in productivity depends on the procrastination's cause. Procrastination is sometimes categorized into two types-- the relaxed type (feels negatively toward his/her work and blows it off) and the tense-afraid type (feels overwhelmed by pressures). I self-identify as the latter, and reducing stress helps me a lot.

minimizing the amount of other tissue (including muscle in excess of what is strictly needed for a comfortable daily life)

This is a very strange criterion. Increased muscle mass generally means increased athletic ability, which most would consider a good thing. Body fat as well has a large range in which it is considered healthy. Why stay at the minimum of these ranges?

I think you might do well to separate your nutrition research from your fitness research. As you are looking into brain function, you'll likely be interested in reading up on nootropics.

http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/08/07/how-exercise-can-help-us-learn/?_r=2

Okay, giving stimulants a look:

• Genistein: ... I'm having lots of trouble interpreting that...
• Modafinil: GAH! WALL OF TEXT! This is going to take some time... Luckily I'm on a holiday, but this is going to be interesting to research...

You should give Juicing a try :] www.66dayhealthmastery.com Yes, I know, tacky site but it has worked wonders for me, my PCOS (Polycystic Ovary Syndrome), my skin and energy in general! :D I like this because she isn't to the extreme everything-is-better-raw vegan and actually adjusted her beliefs when given sufficient proof AND backs up her articles with scientific studies and references. I still follow a high raw vegetalble diet, no milk and refined sugars but do occasioanlly indugle in some salmon, chicken or steak (I love steak too much to let it go) once or twice a week. She can go to the extreme though, in terms of buying a expensive water filtration system to make sure her water has the righ PH level and has no flouride, chlorine or any harmful chemicals in it but yeah that's high level raw organic vegan tier hahaha, all you need really to start is fruits, vegetables and a juicer or blender. :D Just wanted to clarify that this diet only intends the fruit and vegetable juice as a supplament, not a replacacement to whole meals. I have enrolled to do Boxing or Muay Thai for physical excercise and before that I dancened, hula hooped, ran or did jumping rope for cardio and planking for core strengthening and it has worked but now I just want to achieve something elsewhile working out :p

Maybe, though, you just need to re-organize or be stricter with your schedule to include both working out and study time.

Edit: typing on a ipad is tricky