Facebook and Weight Gain
It may sound funny, for some of us obesity could be directly related to the amount of time one spends on Facebook. As per a recent report on obesity in the US, around two thirds of the adult population and as many as one third of all kids are obese. You may ask what has Facebook has to do with increasing obesity in the US.
Facebook-ing while eating
Well, think again! Ask yourself this: How much of your time are you spending on Facebook?
If you are a teenager or in your early thirties or mid forties, chances are you are spending at least 2 hours of your time on Facebook. That simply means that you are adding 2 unproductive hours to your sedentary lifestyle.
For most of us, our day begins with Facebook and ends with Facebook. The time you could have spent getting fresh morning air outside your home, walking or jogging in the park, is now spent sitting in front of your computer, checking Facebook messages, and updating your status!
After a tiring day at office, you could wind up and relax exercising or simply walking down a street…instead, we end up checking what’s happened with our friends during the day, when we’d not able to check our FB account!
The story doesn’t end here- A survey indicates that more and more people are tuning in to Facebook to play games…by the famous zygna, and boast about their scores to their so called ‘friends’. Now here comes the twist…People are not only wasting hours and hours getting away from the reality, but when they play games or chat with friends on Facebook, they have a habit of munching away chips and other junk food.
Let’s get factual. As per internet world stats 2010, 43% of the US population is active Facebook users, as compared to just 5.9% in the rest of the world. 44.6% of the population in California uses Facebook, and 24.4% of its population is obese! While in case of Illinois, it has 54.8% Facebook users, and the obesity percentage is 26.6%!
It may be difficult to establish a direct correlation between Facebook users and obesity, as one may argue that obesity depends on a number of factors including food habits, lifestyle and so on, nevertheless, the fact remains that the more time you spend on Facebook, the more time you remain glued to your seat, and you lose time that you could have spent in other activities.
By whiling away hours and hours on Facebook, you are refraining from simple pleasures of life. When was the last time you skipped a jumping rope with your kid? Or do you remember the last time you had a hearty laugh with your friend or a family member?
Avoid or limit the time spent on Facebook as possible, and you will see a positive signs in your life. Instead of checking what’s happening in the lives of your friends, go for a walk with your family member or a friend. You will feel refreshed!
Instead of spending time in updating your status, take a brisk walk for 20 minutes every day, and you will see the fat melting away. With a healthy lifestyle, diseases will keep away from you.
Remember, just like people are addicted to drinking or smoking, Facebook too is an addiction. The difference here is, it is a silent, and unless you proactively try to stop it intruding in your personal life, you will not succeed in getting rid of this addiction.
I am not asking you to cut off from Facebook. Sure you can get in touch with a distant friend on Facebook, but if Facebook leading to gain weight and other concerns associated with it, you’d better off considerably reducing the time spent or avoid Facebook. You’ll be glad you did!
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Hi everyone….It looks like this is nice topic to bring up. I am one who hates belly, facebooking most of the time and doin nothing is my hobby. Eating junk food is mostly what I take when I am online chatting with friends but I never gain too much weight just a bit
I am just a happy person when I work out, but I am much more happier when I am in front of my computer doing everything on my facebook… this makes me lazy, doin nothing but facebook most of the time, once it started I can’t logout.
lols this what happened to my brother so I might say all the way that I agree… facebook tends someone to gain weight. Sitting in-front of your computer all day is not the problem but sitting while eating a lot is the problem hahaha. I couldn’t imagine how my brother will react on this.
Why don’t people just get back to how it used to be before the internet came along and just go and make friends and contacts with real people in the real world. Or have people forgotten how to do this? Or is it too much trouble?
Put the burger down and have some yogurt, be sure to do some jogging. It’s about time that we leave facebook now and other social network site that makes everyone to gain weight… If we only pay close attention, we realize that a lot of people who are overweight tend to be very unhappy and often talk about others to make themselves feel better. I think this is a serious problem, lots of people are overweight.
I never experience gaining weight while on facebook, the only time I have experienced weight gain is when I’m around my parents too much and eat the delicious food they make! lols!
I have gained weight as a result of my constant use to my computer. I spent lot of time in-front of computer and on facebook and it’s not good for me cause I am XD size.
Sir, do you really honestly believed that Facebook makes us gain weight? Isn’t it getting weight is our sole responsibility, that we take too much calories? Even if we are using facebook while eating, if only we wanted to, we can limit ourselves not to gain such weight. So now do you still beleived that facebook is the main factor for this?
Truly… overuse of internet, especially facebook can really lead to inactive lifestyles. Everybody can easily gain weight and decline in physical fitness. Sleepless nights, Head ache & Back ache are the common ailments that I have suffered because of this facebook zynga application specially Texas HoldEm Poker. Damn!!! I think I should start avoiding facebook.