Internet & Weight Gain: Teen Girls on the Web Gain Weight, Study Finds

Note from Connie: Watch out how much time you or your teenagers are on the Internet! That's because an intriguing new study in the July issue of The Journal of Pediatrics found that spending too much time on the internet can cause teenage girls to gain weight. Not only that, but lack of sleep and drinking alcohol led to extra pounds, too, the research found. Uh-oh, better get off my butt now! Gerry Pugliese brings you details.

Researchers link the lack of physical activity associated with surfing the internet as the major explanation for weight gain. They offer HealthDay News this explanation:

"People who are spending more time on Internet, their general activity in daily living is going to be a lot lower than someone who isn't on the computer," said Madelyn Fernstrom, Ph.D., C.N.S., founding director of the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center Weight Management Center and associate director of the UPMC Center for Nutrition in Pittsburgh.

Here’s an idea for a solution. Maybe girls -- or even all of us -- should switch to the Trek Desk, which I learned about through the Diet-Blog.

Thanks to Serena Gordon, whose article on HealthDay News, "Surfing to a Higher Weight," tipped us off to the study.

Gerry Pugliese for the SUGAR SHOCK! Blog.

The first thing I thought of when I read about this new research about how teens spending time on the Web can gain weight was a telling episode from "South Park World of Warcraft" (hence the picture to your left).

This compelling new study found, upon studying 5,000 teenage girls across the U.S., that those who spent more than 16 hours a week on the Internet were nearly twice as likely to gain weight, even after the researchers considered other factors like sleeping, coffee drinking and alcohol use.

"We found more weight gain—after adjustment for height growth and other factors including physical activity—for females who spent more recreational time on the Internet, for those getting the least sleep, and for those drinking the most alcohol," lead author Catherine S. Berkey, M.A., Sc.D., a biostatistician and lecturer in medicine at the Harvard Medical School's Department of Medicine and research associate at Brigham and Women's Hospital, told HealthDay News.

The teens were surveyed on their Internet use, sleep habits, coffee consumption, alcohol consumption, and physical activity.