Kill Your Television?
Watching less TV = weight loss! At least that’s what the headlines will be saying about this “not statistically significant” study of 20 people whose TVs were electronically restricted. When their TV watching was cut by half, they burned more calories.
Overweight and obese individuals whose TVs were fitted with an electronic “lock-out” device to cut their viewing by half ended up burning more calories than they consumed, researchers found…
The 20 volunteers whose TV-watching was electronically rationed burned 244 more calories than they consumed each day. In contrast, 16 similarly overweight individuals who did not have a limit imposed on their TV viewing consumed 57 more calories than they burned each day. The findings were not statistically significant, but suggest that cutting down on TV time can increase activity and improve the body’s energy balance.
I look forward to losing weight now that Glee, Mad Men, Top Chef, and Project Runway are all off the air. Of course, American Idol comes back on in January, and it airs like six nights a week, so my diet will soon be over.
Posted by mo pie
Filed under: American Idol, Glee, Humor, Science, TV, Weight Loss
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Hey no fair! I watch maybe an hour of TV a day, why am I not a size 2?
Ah, wait that is not true, at the gym I do watch TV as well while on the cardio machines…..is that making me fat?
I canceled my cable a year ago–where’s my damn weight loss?
I don’t watch much TV as it is (and I’m still fat), but I’d watch a lot less if there weren’t so many damn diet commercials to fast forward through.
Maybe people who watch less TV feel better about themselves. If the world is constantly telling you that you are a worthless ugly slob, there is a tendency to just throw in the towel and not try to do anything healthy for yourself. Less TV probably resulted in less boredom and guilt based snacking.
I don’t watch any TV anymore, though I catch up with my shows online about once a week. I’m still fat, though I feel better about myself because online I can block out the ads. Condensing everything into just what I want to watch is probably better for me, too. When I run out of shows, I have to go find something productive to do.
Godless Heathen, I know I feel better about myself since I stopped watching TV. I still watch it on Netflix and whatnot, but I almost never see commercials anymore. I’d probably be even happier if I didn’t see the totality of unrealistically thin people in movies and TV shows, but that’s not a tradeoff I’m willing to make.
I remember mentioning my self-esteem gainings to my mom a couple years ago, and her response was “I’d have thought you’d be too mature to be affected by something like that.” Ok, whatever, Mom.
I haven’t had cable at home in 6 years; where’s my weight loss?! It has helped me kick negative thinking nearly as much as ditching the scale, and I know that’s made me healthier. :P
I don’t watch television to begin with – OH WAIT, I must still be fat because of those commercials before the movie starts in a theater…
Ah, wait that is not true, at the gym I do watch TV as well while on the cardio machines…..is that making me fat?
Obvs!
I watch maybe a 5 hours of TV a WEEK, and I still weigh the same as I did when I watch 7 hours a DAY.
I went without TV for 2 years when my roommate moved out and took the TV with her. Didn’t lose a pound. Can I get a refund or something? Who do I complain to?
Given that the results were not statistically significant, I’m wondering how much the volunteers’* behavior was influenced by knowing they were being monitored. For the people who had limited TV time, the study was probably on their minds more than those who were allowed to keep their normal viewing habits.
Also, how long did the study last for? The article said that in similar studies with children intake was reduced but the calories burned was unchanged and they concluded, ” a similar change of energy balance was achieved but through a different mechanism” Did the adults have enough time to come up with an equally sedentary activity to substitute for the TV?
*How were they compensated? What kind of people self-selected to be in this study?
But wait! When I didn’t have a TV I got cancer and gained 55kg/121 pounds! How do they account for that?
How this affects a person’s overall weight I am unsure, but I do know that watching television for extending periods of time does encourage snacking and otherwise unnecessary eating, at least for me! Regular tv watchers are exposed to tens of thousands of commercials a year and there’s no telling how many of those are food advertisements. And just like that new ipod nano commercial kind of makes me want to go to apple store (an urge I am fighting despite the holiday season), seeing a commercial for pizza with cheese in the crust does make me get the munchies.
Granted do I pop open a bag of chips for every time I hear “5 dollar foot long”? Of course not that’s absurd. But I am of the opinion that being exposed to such on a constant basis does have an affect. Because isn’t that the point of commercials? To make you want what’s being sold? If it didn’t work, I doubt we’d see so many of them.
That being said, the correlation between television watching and overeating and weight is in no way absolute. Hence why it should be considered a correlation. A high occurrence of one has been noted with an occurrence of the other; this does not mean one causes the other. Something I’m afraid that study neglected to consider or mention.
I got rid of cable and eventually the TV itself about two years ago and I’m still pretty chunky. Maybe I need to ditch my food and computer to really experience the full benefits of thinness.
I think that it’s easier to stick to healthy eating without the TV beaming endless commercials for greasy, starchy restaurant fare and highly processed convenience foods into one’s living room. Turning it off also removes one of the mysterious forces that can cause an entire bag of chips to disappear. ;)
But that’s not automatically a path to weight loss by any means.
There aren’t a lot of tv shows that I watch regularly, but snacks and tv seem to go hand in hand in our household. I just can’t seem to watch The Office and not crave Goldfish Crackers.
I haven’t had time to watch TV since I started grad school.
While I lost a few pounds early in the semester, it was due to stress that made me too sick feeling to eat for several days at a time, and once my life leveled out, it came back.
I’ll admit it – most of my sit-on-my-ass time is spent on my laptop. I could care less if my tv time was restricted. It wouldn’t change my lifestyle habits at all. Recently, especially, my energy has been used up running around the apartment and cleaning as if my life depended on it in preparation for holiday visits (when I’m not constantly on my feet at work). I’d say that’s burned enough off to let me watch Castle once a week.
Like Jez, I’m more of what some people cutely refer to as a mouse potato – if I’m sitting watching anything, I’m likely as not on YouTube. I watch very little TV at all – I’m sort of half-watching a David Attenborough thing about birds of paradise as I type this, but only because I’m on the laptop in the room where the TV happens to be.
Not that that matters, because it appears any activity that involves sitting down is guilty. I heard (can anyone confirm this?) that Australian health authorities want to limit kids’ reading time. I used to get told I had a big bottom from sitting reading too much as a kid, but my folks were kind of weird anyway – they always wanted me to watch TV with them instead of reading up in my room, because the former was more ‘sociable’. Go figure.
This is ridiculous! We have become a rationing, teetolating society that needs to be “off” things – “off” caffeine, “off” sugar, “off” sugar substitutes and now “off” TV.
We don’t need to be anything society wants us to be. We just need to be ourselves. That includes being what size we are. That is the point of why we should get out there and enjoy life, do our thing, and stop wasting our minds at the idiot box being told what to be “on” and “off” and for how long – this includes our asses.
I used to have mice – my blog tells you how to stop mice.
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