Rationing TV time can increase your kid’s physical activity by 65%.

We watch TV like we eat goodies. We get big heaping servings and eat until it’s all gone. The problem is TV is on 24 hours a day. It never ends. Kids watch 4 hours of TV day on average and now spend more time watching TV than in school.

What can you do? One study suggests rationing your kids’ TV viewing.

 In the study, for every hour of physical activity the kids participated, in they got a token that would allow them to watch on hour of TV or play an hour of video games.

The results of this simple-sounding scheme were very impressive:

1.      Kids increased their physical activity by 65%.

2.      Their daily TV watching time went down dramatically, from almost three hours a night to only forty-five minutes a night.

3.      TV-related snacking went way down because they weren’t watching as much TV.

This study shows a clever way of implementing the Be Less Inactive strategy. Remember that the idea was not to tell kids to go exercise more, but to get them to be less inactive and they would figure out how to exercise on their own. Rationing TV is a way of getting the kids to be less inactive.

One cool bit of technology this study had that you won’t have is a TV operated by tokens. The tokens the kids received for exercise operated the TV, like a video game. Although you don’t have a token operated TV, you can still probably figure out a way of making this strategy work for your family.

Is this strategy just for kids? I don’t think so. I think you can use it for yourself too. Of course you can always cheat, but you can always cheat on anything. The process of awarding yourself tokens redeemable for TV viewing time may be just the amount of structure you need to help lower your TV viewing time.

Or Just Yank the TV

Researchers found kids with a TV in the bedroom had a higher BMI and were significantly more likely to be overweight compared to kids without a TV in their bedroom. So consider yanking the TV out of your kid’s bedroom.

Electronic gadgets of all kinds (computers, phones, TVs, etc) are linked with children sleeping fewer hours at night than they used to. Since not getting enough sleep is strongly associated with obesity, you just might want to pitch all the electronics out of their rooms. The gadgets may seem harmless on the surface, but they could be a significant cause of your child’s weight problems.

To Learn More

·        TV Allowance is a device connecting your TV to the power outlet. It allows you to control the amount of time the television is allowed to be on. Their website is at http://www.tvallowance.com.