The Idiot Box & Fitness

by Heather Long | More from this Blogger

09 Feb 2007 04:58 PM

In the February issue of Pediatrics a magazine, a study was published that may actually surprise you - it certainly surprised me. It states that if your teenager or child is not getting enough exercise - the blame does not lay with the idiot box or television. In fact, the study also revealed that there was no relationship between the amounts of time a teenager spent watching television and their level of physical activity.

While this may fly in the face of conventional thinking because we tend to think of the television as leading to couch potatoes and the couch potato spread. We've even espoused this belief here in the Fitness blog - that our children and our teenagers and even we ourselves are overweight or prone to obesity because we watch too much television or we play too many video games. If we're doing all of this, we're going to have less time to play sports or to exercise.

The lead author of the study, Dr. Elsie M. Taveras of Harvard Medical School stated: "Changes in television viewing do not necessarily predict changes in physical activity - increases or decreases - so we cannot just assume if we can get kids to reduce their television viewing it will automatically result in increases in their physical activity."

The study began in 1997 and involved 6400 girls and 4500 boys between the ages of 10 and 15. The study continued for more than 4 years and the children completed written questionnaires during the study period. They reported how much time they watched television and how much time they exercised beyond the required P.E. classes.

Video games and DVD and VHS viewing were also included in their television watching time. For exercise, all physical activities from baseball to bike riding to dancing and skateboarding as well as swimming, skating, karate and football were included in their exercise areas.

According to the article, for every additional hour the children spent on their television viewing, their exercise time increased by about .03. Researchers concluded that the changes were not significantly affecting their television or their exercise habits. This held true regardless of age or gender.

So What Does This Study Tell Us?

It says we should look at television watching and exercise as two independent activities driven by separate motivations. We don't need to just tell our kids to watch less television and expect them to just suddenly exercise more. Instead, we need to inspire them to more physical activities and give them greater motivation for them.

In our household, our daughter spends about four hours a week on scheduled physical activities beyond her required 2 hours per week in P.E. This does not include her playtime of bouncing on the trampoline, riding her bike, learning to roller skate or running around like a loon with her friends in the yard. In a typical week, she spends as much as two to three hours per day on physical activities that requires her to run, to play and to get active. That means, she is averaging about ten to fifteen hours per week in physical activity and that's actually not bad.

I'm going to keep a chart, tracking her television viewing versus her physical activity. On bad weather days, I know her television viewing will climb versus her physical activity, but the reverse is true in nice weather. It's also important to note that my daughter spends a lot of time reading, drawing and playing with her toys and none of those involve the television or moderate physical activity.

How does your child do?

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Learn more about Heather Long

Heather Long is 35 years old and currently lives in Wylie, Texas. She has been a freelance writer for six years. Her husband and she met while working together at America Online over ten years ago.

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