Symptoms & Treatments of Being a Couch Potato

What is a couch potato? There are different definitions but generally anyone who sits around all day, barely exercises and watches TV or plays video games (we added the video game part).

• The Cambridge dictionary says a couch potato is “a person who sits and watches a lot of television and does not have an active life”.
• The Urban Dictionary says a couch potato is “an accepted wisdom that for good health to do more exercise preferably daily than spend long hours in front of TV do”
• And Merriam Webster dictionary says “a lazy and inactive person; especially : one who spends a great deal of time watching television”

Where Did The Term Couch Potato Come From?

TV in the late seventies were called Boob tubes. Tube was extended to form “Tuber” later to Potato (potato is a tuber). Then came up with where does the potato watch the TV from…it is from the couch, so came up the word Couch Potato.

What are the symptoms of being a couch potato?

• Not working out or doing any amount of physical labor for weeks, months or years at a time
• Watching Television for long hours at a time, often
• You use the excuse that you ‘do not have time’ to go to the gym or work out
• You are overweight or obese
• You play video games 3+ hours a day AND you are overweight

In 2013 the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) found that 57.6% of American citizens were obese. The organization estimates that 3/4 of the American population will likely be overweight or obese by 2020.

How much television watching does it take to qualify for being a couch potato?

If you watch between 3-7 hours of TV per day, you are in danger of being a couch potato.

How do you treat being a couch potato?

Maybe you are just too afraid of what other people think of you, and you’re nervous about going out anywhere, including the gym, so you stay home day after day… feeling a deep meaningful urge somewhere in your head telling yourself to get up and do something, but you’ve been in this habit for so long you’d rather just keep browsing Facebook and watching your television shows every night…

You need to reverse the habit, the problem is you want it all at once.

But you lost it all slowly and it’s those little habits that are going to come back slowly. So make little positive habits.

• If you are up to 3 hours of TV a day, tell yourself you are going to start watching TV at 7pm instead of 6pm for just one week
• Don’t eat in the 3 hours before bed, so that your stomach is clear and your body enters it’s fasting state while you sleep, you will lose more weight faster and feel better when you wake up; which will in turn help you have the energy to do more with your day
• Don’t start any new shows, finish the ones you are already watching
• Instead of the fries get a side salad, or.. at least get the side salad too, the greens (even lettuce) will help digest the bad stuff
• Count your chews, chew your food at least 19 times before swallowing it (if you are less than 6-9, it’s MUCH harder on your system; and if you don’t chew it first, well…)
• Go for a 30 minute walk around the neighborhood; or better yet take a new path every day, so you are always seeing something new