Is watching too much TV stopping you from losing calories?

The average adult watches around five hours of television every day, although this number is slowly slipping as the internet begins to replace the television as many people’s primary form of entertainment – even if they are just using the net to watch TV programs!

A study has shown that people that watch TV less end up burning more calories. It was conducted on 36 adults who had their televisions fitted with an electronic lock out system that reduced their television watching time by half without changing their diet. All the members of the trial admitted to watching TV at least three hours every day.

The group was split into a study group and control group, with the study group having their TV shut down after around 50% of their daily viewing had been reached. The study group on average burned over 100 calories a day more than those who didn’t change their TV watching habits.

The study group also burned more calories than they consumed every day, while the control group actually consumed slightly more than they could manage to burn on average.

The report suggested that the finding were evidence that small behavioural changes could be a way of solving the obesity epidemic and getting more people to lose weight without having to commit to an exercise regime.

The authors said: “A recent task force report supports small behaviour changes as a more sustainable, long-term approach to help address the obesity epidemic.“

“It has been estimated that combined increases in energy expenditure and decreases in energy intake equalling only 100 calories per day could prevent the gradual weight gain observed in most of the population.”