Weight Loss

A new report discovers a reduction in television time among adults leads to burning more calories.

Although caloric intake did not change, the increased energy burn and replacement of a sedentary behavior with an active lifestyle bodes well for a sustainable long-term approach to combat obesity.

It was reported in Archives of Internal Medicine.

The average adult spends almost four hours near TV per day. Efforts to prevent and reduce obesity have focused on modifying diet and physical activity, but newer strategies have involved reducing sedentary behaviors such as TV watching.

Switching a sedentary behavior to an active endeavor may also improve sleep and indirectly combat obesity.

In the study, Jennifer J. Otten, Ph.D., R.D., and colleagues conducted a randomized controlled trial of 36 adults who had a body mass index between 25 and 50 and reported watching at least three hours of TV per day.

Between January and July 2008, all participants underwent a three-week observation period during which their daily TV time was assessed.

A group of 20 individuals was then randomly assigned to receive an electronic device that shut off the TV after they had reached a weekly limit of 50 percent of their previously measured TV viewing time. An additional 16 participants served as a control group.

As assessed by an armband measuring physical activity, those with the television lockout systems burned 119 more calories per day during the three-week period. In comparison, the control group burned 95 fewer calories per day during the intervention than during the observation period.

Energy balance—energy intake minus energy expenditure—was negative in the intervention group (by 244 calories per day) but positive in the control group (by 57 calories each day); however, this difference did not reach statistical significance.

“A recent task force report supports small behavior changes as a more sustainable, long-term approach to help address the obesity epidemic,” the authors write.

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

Previous research with children has found that screen time reductions reduce calories consumed but do not increase calories burned, producing a similar change in energy balance but through a different mechanism, the authors note.

“This suggests that adults may differ from children in how they respond to reductions in sedentary behaviors,” they conclude.

“To our knowledge, this is the first study to measure the effects of a TV reduction intervention in adults. Reducing TV viewing should be further explored as a method to reduce and prevent obesity in adults.”

It is likely that you have probably heard of the “scale obsession.” Getting on the scale multiple times a day to find out how much weight you have lost can be really detrimental to your diet. In fact, some people can even end up gaining weight due to their obsession with the scale. How do you find out if you are losing weight, however? Here are some tips on how to measure weight loss progress without the help of a scale.

Rings

Wearing a ring every day will help you measure your weight loss progress without a scale. All that you need to do is see how loose or tight your ring fits. It is best to choose a ring that fits perfectly or is slightly tight to measure weight loss with. The looser that the ring becomes over time, the more that you will know that you are losing weight.

Jeans

Get a pair of jeans to measure your weight loss results with. The best thing that you can do is put a pair of jeans aside. This will ensure that jeans do not shrink to frequently being washed. It is also important to make sure that they are a pair of jeans which actually do fit. They should not be a pair of jeans that you cannot fit into yet. Put them on every week at the same time in order to find out loose they become. Needing a belt to hold up the pants will indicate your weight loss.

Bras

If you begin to lose weight, it is likely that you are going to loose it on all areas of your body. This means that even your breasts are going to become smaller over time. Once you begin to lose weight, you will probably begin to notice that your bras become too loose. Keep in mind that it is important for women to wear the right bra size, so if you do notice that your bras become too big, you will want to go shopping for new ones.

As you can see, there are alternative options to using a scale. Certain clothing pieces may be able to indicate how much weight you are or are not losing. They can also be much easier and safer for your diet than becoming obsessed with the numbers on the scale.