Watching Sports on Television Can Make You Thinner

The mere watching of sports on television can aid in making viewers thinner, a new study finds.

This is because when people watch sports on TV, their heart and breathing rate increases. Researchers at the University of Western Sydney found that when people watch a video of someone running, their heart rate and breathing rate are increased. They noted that these measures return to normal when the person they are watching stops exercising. "Recording this nerve activity provides a very sensitive measure of the body's physiological responses to physical or mental stress," said Vaughan Macefield, Professor of Integrative Physiology at the University of Western Sydney.

Researchers used very fine needles during the study which they inserted into the nerves of volunteers. They did this to record the electrical signals of nerve fibers directed to blood vessels and that which measured the body's physiological responses to both physical and mental stress. Participants were presented with a static image on a computer screen while the researchers monitored their muscle sympathetic nerve activity. They also found that the measurements remained constant while the participants viewed the static image but when they were asked to view a video shot by a runner on a vigorous jog, things changed.

"Although these changes were small, they were all appropriate physiological responses to exercise," said Dr. Rachael Brown. "As the volunteers were sitting relaxed, with no muscle activity, it indicates that the responses were psychogenic - that is they came from the mind and not the body. This dovetails with our recent work on the emotions, where we found that viewing emotionally charged images, such as erotica, increases our sympathetic nerve activity and sweat release," she added. However, professor Macefield also stressed that: "While watching other people exercise may increase your heart rate and have other physiological effects, nothing can replace the health benefits of getting off the couch."