Girls with TV in bedroom ‘more likely to get fat’

GIRLS who have televisions in their bedrooms are around a third more likely to become overweight, a study claims.

Seven-year-old girls with TVs have a 30 per cent higher risk of being overweight by the time they are 11 than children without their own set.

For boys with a TV in their room the risk of becoming overweight goes up 20 per cent, the University College London team discovered.

In a study of more than 12,500 British children, they found more than half had TVs in their bedroom at age seven. Researcher Dr Anja Heilmann, whose findings are published in the International Journal of Obesity, said: ‘Our study shows there is a clear link between having a TV in the bedroom as a young child and being overweight a few years later.’

The more TV girls watched, the more weight they put on – although the same was not true for boys. Dr Heilmann thinks this is because young boys tend to ‘bounce on the sofa’ while watching. She suggested a lack of sleep might be behind the overall weight gain.

‘Other research suggests a link between lack of sleep duration and obesity,’ she said.

‘Lack of sleep linked to obesity’