Research
Energy balance
Reducing television watching to less than 10 hours per week and engaging in at least 30 minutes of daily brisk walking can prevent a substantial proportion of new obesity and diabetes cases.
To significantly lower your risk of obesity and diabetes, aim to watch less than 10 hours of TV per week and walk briskly for at least 30 minutes every day. This combination is highly effective and accessible.
GoodSupportsHIGH confidence
We estimated that in our cohort, 30% (95% CI, 24%-36%) of new cases of obesity and 43% (95% CI, 32%-52%) of new cases of diabetes could be prevented by adopting a relatively active lifestyle (<10 h/wk of TV watching and ≥30 min/d of brisk walking).
Why this rating
Based on the same large prospective cohort with robust statistical modeling of population-attributable risk.
Source
Television Watching and Other Sedentary Behaviors in Relation to Risk of Obesity and Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus in Women
Frank B. Hu et al. · JAMA · 2003
DOI 10.1001/jama.289.14.1785
cohort · n=68497Cited 1,903×
Read the paper DOI resolved against Crossref · corpus check 2026-06-10
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