Couch Potato

Slash your TV viewing by half and you could shed the kilos, writes Claire Keeton

To shape up for summer, try this effortless solution: switch off your TV and stand up. If you go on a "television diet" - without making any other changes to your eating or exercise routines - you will burn more energy, a US study shows.

Any activity, from reading and talking on the phone to paying the bills or playing board games, uses up more calories than sitting in front of the box. Less time watching TV and DVDs also lowers the chance of dying from spending too much time seated. People who spend more than six hours a day sitting are at higher risk of chronic disease, even if they exercise regularly, a major US study has found.

These findings mean desk-bound workers should get "danger pay", quips Vicki Lambert, an exercise scientist at the University of Cape Town. Staying sedentary for long periods makes you a sitting duck for weight gain and ill health.

On average, Americans watch almost five hours of TV a day. And nearly one in three South African pupils (Grades 8 to 11) spends more than three hours a day in front of the box, according to the latest National Youth Risk Behaviour Survey.

Dr Jennifer Otten, lead author on the TV research, says: "The main finding of this study was that overweight adults who cut their TV viewing time in half were able to increase the number of calories they burned by about 120 calories a day.

"We did not tell them to make any other changes besides reducing their viewing time," says Otten, from the Stanford University School of Medicine.

Television viewing is usually inactive and is associated with weight gain. It also encourages fast-food consumption, says Irene Labuschagne. The principle dietician at the Nutrition Information Centre at the University of Stellenbosch, she says recent research found fast-food consumption was common among young adults in Joburg.

TV viewing also influences fast-food purchasing, according to a study in the latest SA Journal of Clinical Nutrition.

Joburg dietician Anne Till highlights the tendency to snack on foods that make you fat: "Television viewing and couch-potato behaviour is associated with snacking on high-calorie foods such as potato crisps, chocolates and carbonated drinks."

She says: "When specific programmes are selected and viewing is limited to an hour or two daily, TV does not necessarily have an undesirable effect on eating habits. But hours of senseless TV viewing can contribute to laziness in terms of shopping and preparing food and the quality of the diet will deteriorate."

Moderate viewing and occasional or smart snacking won't do any harm, but when viewing becomes excessive the cumulative effect is to pile on the kilograms. That's why breaking this habit now, rather than waiting for 2011 new-year resolutions, could benefit your health.

Burning an extra 120 calories every day for a year by cutting TV viewing could prevent a weight gain of 5kg, says Otten. "This may not sound very big but 120 calories a day equals 840 a week. This is equivalent to walking an extra 12.8km a week."

She says their findings are important for weight control but also highlight the risks of sitting for many hours at a time. Even though the sitting research focused on seated leisure time, the results are of concern for anyone who spends all day in a chair.

Lambert says: "Adding steps to your day and reducing sitting time are important."