Less TV for the Fall

Did you know that the average American adult spends 5 hours per day watching television? With the colder weather around the corner, don’t contribute to this statistic!

In a study in Archives of Internal Medicine, 2009; 169:2109-2115, researchers looked at the effect of reducing TV time by 50%. Compared to study participants who were not instructed to decrease TV time, subjects who did decrease it raised energy expenditure by 120 calories per day due to less time sitting. When combined with lower energy intake (we tend to eat in front of the TV), study participants had a negative energy balance of 244 calories per day. This is enough of a calorie deficit to lose 2 pounds per month!

Want to get healthy this fall? Turn off the Television!

-Ethan Lazarus, M.D.