Tag Archive for 'TV'

Lose weight by cutting TV time in half

Published on March 11, 2010 in Health and Wellness. 0 Comments Tags: , .

69616386_b6468f8305Love watching TV but hate exercising and you want to lose some weight? Well you may just need to love TV half as much. A new study claims that you can burn an extra 120 calories a day by cutting your TV watching by 50 percent. I know, you love your favorite shows, but the good news is that you can burn these extra calories without even exercising!

The lead author of a new University of Vermont study, Jennifer Otten, says that “the average American watches about five hours of TV a day.” The people in her study actually burned 120 calories more a day just by watching half as much TV a day. She said that this can render a whopping 12-pound weight loss within a year’s time; all without any additional change in their diet.

The researchers discovered that when the participants turned off the TV, they tended to do little chores around the house that eventually had a significant effect on their weight. She said that you can even burn calories by doing something as simple as organizing a photo album.  Otten said that “small changes in behavior can be more sustainable over time and may have a real effect on fighting obesity.” That’s a good incentive to turn off the tube and get started on that “honey do” list.

Kids’ TV watching can influence eating habits in later years

Published on February 9, 2009 in Health and Wellness. 0 Comments Tags: , , , .

Can watching TV make you fat? There are some increasing amount of indicators that link too much TV viewing to becoming overweight or obese.

The most recent study on eating habits has revealed that kids who watch more TV than other kids in middle and high school have diets that are not as healthy 5 years later. During this time, these kids tend to eat more fast food, fried foods and sugary drinks and eat less fruits, vegetables and whole grains.

The lead researcher of this study, Daheia Barr-Anderson said that they don’t know what exactly links TV and diets, but she knows there is a definite connection. She said that there are a lot of commercials for snacks and soda on TV that target children, and this tends to affect their food choices. Also, many lifelong habits are shaped in the adolescent years, such as a tendency to snack and watch TV.

American adolescents definitely play a role in the obesity upswing. Fewer than 5% of 12-19 year olds were overweight in the mid-1960s, but today there are about 17% who are overweight and another 17% who are obese.

In earlier studies, Harvard researchers found that for each hour of TV watching, kids ate an extra 167 calories a day, mainly because they usually eat more junk food. The University of Missouri-Columbia advocates that the combination of family meals and less TV can help kids to avoid getting overweight.

This most recent study was conducted on a survey of 2000 middle and high school children in Minneapolis and St. Paul, Minnesota. This study was different, because it compared the subjects’ behavior in two separate time periods instead of at the same time. It can be found in the International Journal of Behavioral Nutrition and Physical Activity.