About 18% of people who watch less than two hours of TV a day have a body mass index (BMI) of 30 or more, but 30% of those who watch more than four hours a day do, according to a study in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology. BMI is a way to measure body composition based on an individual’s weight and height, providing a reliable indicator of body fat levels for most people. A healthy, normal BMI is 18.5-25, and anything over 30 is considered obese.
Cutting down your TV time can help you burn more calories and lose weight, without even trying! In a study at the University of Vermont, overweight participants who cut their daily TV time in half (from an average of 5 hours to 2.5 hours) burned an extra 119 calories a day. That equals about a pound of weight loss a month, without even trying. If you spent just one of those extra few hours exercising, think of all the extra weight you could lose.
If that’s not enough to convince you, a recent study of people who successfully lost weight found that 63 percent of them watched less than 10 hours of TV a week. That’s less than 2 hours a day people!
If you just can’t imagine cutting back on the TV time, make sure you’re doing something and not just sitting on the couch for hours. Buy a jump rope and spend about half an hour of your TV time jumping rope and doing body-weight exercises. Clean up around the house during commercials, do a few loads of laundry, or just get up and stretch! Little movements add up!
