Watching the Olympics on TV can help you to LOSE weight! Viewers burn up to 540 calories every 90 minutes – the equivalent of a 45-minute run, study finds
It’s easy to feel lazy watching the world’s best athletes compete at the Olympics while you sit on the couch munching on snacks.
But new research suggests you should give yourself a break.
Research from Loughborough University shows that simply watching the Olympic Games on TV can help you lose weight.
According to the research, viewers can burn up to 540 calories in 90 minutes.
To put it into perspective, that’s the equivalent of running for 45 minutes!
It’s easy to feel lazy when you’re watching the world’s best athletes compete at the Olympics while you’re sitting on the couch munching on snacks. But a new study suggests you should give yourself a break (stock image)
From the European Championships to the Olympic Games, it’s safe to say that the summer of 2024 has been the summer of sport.
With screens showing these events popping up across the UK, EDF has commissioned research into the health benefits of watching sport on TV.
Working with Dr Dale Eslinger, a sports scientist at Loughborough University, the team developed a formula they called ‘The Power of Celebration’.
This formula allows you to calculate your energy consumption when watching sports on TV. It takes into account five important factors.
These are: your body weight, how you watch sports, the base time, the intensity of the celebration and the time at which the celebration takes place.
According to this formula, an 80 kg football fan watching a 90-minute match, while sitting for three quarters of the game, fidgeting and reacting violently by jumping, punching the air or shouting, can burn up to 540 calories.
According to EDF, this would amount to a 45-minute run.
A tennis fan of the same body weight who sits for three hours watching a match, chatting and occasionally cheering and clapping, can burn up to 432 calories. That is the equivalent of swimming for 60 minutes.
An athletics fan with the same body weight, if he watches the sport sitting for 60 minutes and responds moderately by jumping up and walking back and forth for a quarter of the time, can burn up to 162 calories. This is the equivalent of a 30-minute walk.
The team created a formula, called ‘The Power of Celebration’, that allows you to calculate your energy consumption while watching TV
According to the research, viewers can burn up to 540 calories in a 90-minute period. To put that into perspective, that’s the equivalent of a 45-minute run (stock image)
An archery enthusiast of the same weight who sits and watches a match for 60 minutes and physically reacts a quarter of the time by clapping and biting his nails can burn up to 106 calories. This is the equivalent of a 15-minute cycle.
“Watching sports has a positive effect on your well-being and vitality,” says Dr. Eslinger.
‘By combining the way we watch sport with the intensity of our celebrations, and taking into account factors such as body weight and overall duration, the innovative Power of Celebration formula allows sports fans to quantify their own energy expenditure while enjoying the thrill of the games.’
The research comes hot on the heels of a study that found that playing video games can help you lose weight.
Research by Stakester found that male gamers can burn as much as 420 calories during a two-hour gaming session, while female gamers can burn up to 472 calories – the equivalent of doing 1,000 sit-ups.
“We all know that competition gets our heart rates up, and most of us have experienced the ‘gaming sweat’ that comes from squeezing in a last-minute goal in FIFA or finding ourselves in a tight spot in Warzone,” said Tom Fairey, CEO and founder of Stakester.
“It’s no surprise that you burn calories with this, but we were surprised to see how many calories you burn in a 2-hour session. It’s definitely better than doing 1,000 sit-ups!”