How Watching TV Makes You Fat
If you’re fat and looking for a culprit to blame because you being fat can’t obviously be your fault, then you’ve certainly come to the right place ‘cause boy have I got the perfect scapegoat for you!
And that scapegoat is…
Yup, you guessed it!
Go ahead and blame TELEVISION!!!1For dramatic effect, imagine the “television” being pronounced with a Spanish accent!
Beginning in 1985, researchers at Harvard were the first to show a significant and positive association between TV watching and obesity in children.2In that study three sample groups of children and adolescents all displayed a prevalence of obesity in relation with the time spent watching TV. Furthermore, among the 12-17 year olds in one of the samples, the prevalence of obesity increased by 2 percent for every additional hour of TV watched. Since then, numerous studies all over the world have not only confirmed that link but have also found it among adults, in addition to findings of a relationship between TV increasing the risk of weight-related disease and early death, too.3In the other studies involving children, one found that preschool kids with a TV in their bedroom had an increased risk of being overweight compared to kids who didn’t. Another study found the same results among 12 year olds with TV sets in their room.
As an example, a six-year study of 50,000 middle-aged women found that for every two hours of TV, the risk of becoming obese and developing diabetes rose by 23 and 14 percent, respectively. In another study, researchers found that life expectancy decreases by 22 minutes for every single hour of TV that’s watched by someone over the age of 25.
So why’s TV so bad?
Actually, TV isn’t that bad, at least not on cable and the streaming services where they have the freedom of nudity and profanity and their programs target a niche audience rather than aiming for everybody. But network television? Ha, that’s a different story! Why network TV shows aren’t as good as they once were might be because the writers are unimaginative hacks and a lot of the edge has been taken out of stuff because of PC culture so as not to offend any…
Ohhhhhhhhhhh, you meant why’s TV so bad for you when it comes to you healthwise!!!
TV’s bad for your health because you’re not moving around and burning calories when you’re glued to the boob tube for hours on end. And on top of not burning calories, you’re also likely to take in more of them. Both of these pathways to weight gain can affect your health by resulting in obesity and the diseases related to it.
DUH!!!
Weight gain from TV watching operates on two pathways, that of decreased energy expenditure and increased calorie intake. As for the specific ways that either occur, there are several.
TV watching cuts down on daily calorie burn from movement because sitting down to do so for X hours displaces intentional and non-intentional exercise. Also, as a passive and sedentary form of activity, TV watching may have the effect of decreasing energy levels so you’re less likely to become active after the TV watching is over.
Now, for TV making you eat more, one way how is that food commercials stimulate your appetite and your ability to listen to your hunger cues is impaired thanks to your brain focusing on some poorly developed character do what some poorly developed script calls for them to do to advance some poorly developed plot.
So yeah, temptation and distraction play a role in TV making you fat!
Know what else does too?
Well, see those beautiful people on TV with their fit and thin bodies?
Yeah, those people who personify the thin female beauty ideal and the muscular male body archetype!
Well, seeing all those people can make you feel bad about yourself and drive you to emotional eating if you have body image issues.
As if that weren’t enough, TV doesn’t just make you fat by causing you to move less and eat more.
It also disrupts sleep.
Evening TV watching can make you more alert when you should be getting ready to wind down, leading to restlessness and difficulty falling and staying asleep. The artificial light can also throw off your biological clock and the release of melatonin, preventing you from entering the REM sleep-cycle.
What does sleep and its quality have to do with weight gain?
A LOT!!!
Lack of sleep affects the hormones responsible for appetite control, with more ghrelin produced so you feel hungrier and leptin reduced so satiety doesn’t set in as quickly. Additionally, the stress hormone cortisol spikes and more fat gets stored for future purposes.
As for what else lack of sleep does, you don’t have to be a genius to figure out that it makes you tired. Well, tiredness increases the likelihood of poor decision-making, as there’s no way in hell that you’re going to go to the gym after work, let alone cook your own food when you can just do something more convenient like order a large pizza.
But who can blame ya for any of this?!
Nobody!
It’s TV’s fault!!!
Glossary: calories, exercise, fat, gym, hormones
