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Burn calories during TV time  

By Brittany Doohan

Sitting for 3 or more hours a day, which is easy to do when you’re binge-watching your favorite Netflix show, may double your risk of premature death, according to research published in the Journal of the American Heart Association.

The good news is that you don’t have to give up your favorite shows to cut down on your sitting time. Here are some easy ways you can have your TV time and burn some calories, too! 

• Break up sitting time by doing some light calisthenics during commercial breaks:
• Try pushups (you remember those from PE class). Do them on your knees for ease and remember to keep your back straight.
• Work those abs with some crunches! Lie flat on your back with your knees bent, hands behind your head, then squeeze your abdominal muscles as you lift your torso off the ground and set it back down.
• If you’d rather work your lower half, try some squats: stand with feet a little wider than shoulder-width apart, hips stacked over knees and knees over ankles, then lower yourself into a “chair” position; lift yourself back up and repeat.
• Hop on a treadmill while you watch your favorite shows — many gyms have TVs right in the machines! Your favorite 22-minute sitcom? 152 calories gone. An entire season? 4,995 calories out the window (that’s nearly a pound and a half!).
• Make a game out of it. Lie down on your side while you watch and do leg lifts (lift your top leg up, hold for a bit, then bring it back down) every time you hear the word “and.” Don’t forget to switch sides!

Click here for more fitness hacks for the couch potato at heart.  

Published April 15, 2016. 

Brittany Doohan is a health and lifestyle writer and editor living in San Francisco.