Covid 19 has changed the global lifestyle due to lockdown and people are preferring to remain inside . Even companies are preferring their employees to work from Home online and this has drastically changed the lifestyle of the working population. School going children are joining their class online, hence their screen time has increased as they are studying as well as playing online.

Couch Potato Life style –

A couch potato lifestyle refers to a person’s lifestyle where a person spends most of their time sitting on a sofa or chair watching TV & doing nothing. This type of person has maximum screen time 20 to 40 percent of a day.

This type of person lives in the world of television, sitting or sleeping on a comfort couch with a packet of chips & junk food with  very little physical activity. They are the lazy people who are always watching TV & munching loads of fats & carbs.

In today’s gazette world, everything is available at our fingertips & one need not get up from one’s sofa.  All the news apps, social media apps, home delivery and so on are just a click away. Now another feature – Voice Assistance Feature of Mobile or TV helps a person not to even move their finger to order on mobile. Couch potatoes can stay up to date staying where they are- on their beloved sofas. This type of lifestyle includes  activities like sitting, reading, watching television, playing video games, and computer use all day with little or no vigorous physical exercise. Couch potatoes  live like it is Sunday every day.

Active Couch Potato LifeStyle –

If a person does the morning workouts daily 30-40 mts and spends maximum of his day time sitting on a chair doing his daily routine job will be in the category of Active Couch Potato LifeStyle.

Impact of Couch Potato LifeStyle 

If a Person has Physical Inactive LifeStyle i.e. less than 315 minutes of moderate-intensity or 210 minutes of vigorous-intensity physical activity per week and  spending the entire day sitting on a chair , then person is sure to face several health issues like OBESITY, CARDIOVASCULAR DISEASES, DIABETES,HYPERTENSION & MORE & will be detrimental. It can also affect the Mental Health & increase the risk of Depression & Anxiety.

• Slow Regional Cerebral Blood Flow (rCBF)

Physical inactivity for ten days can lead to slow flow of rCBF in eight different brain regions,to both Left & Right Hippocampus, A region necessary for  memory formation, storage, and retrieval, hence Brain will show significant negative effects.

• Unstable INSULIN level & cause of Type 2 Diabetes

             Each additional hour of total sitting time per day is linked to a 6 percent increase in       

             Insulin levels and a 7 percent in Insulin resistance.    

             Further, each additional 15 minutes of uninterrupted sitting is associated with 7 percent              

             higher insulin levels and an almost 9% increase in insulin resistance.

             This will be the cause of type 2 Diabetes.

• Obesity & Overweight 

             Long periods of sitting were also associated with excess weight, a wider waist and 

             Increased triglyceride levels causing High Blood Pressure & Diabetes.

•   Reduced Metabolism 

              Sitting for long periods impairs blood flow to the lower part of the body, which can

              create inflammation and reduce metabolism.In the Physical Inactivity mode, 

              Pathways for metabolism to improve utilization of Glucose & Lipid numbers become 

              Inactive . They go into hibernation mode. 

•    Premature Death & Several Non-Communicable Disease

              Physical inactivity is a known risk factor for premature death and several    

  non-communicable diseases, including heart disease, stroke, high blood pressure, type 

  2 diabetes and several cancers.

•    Couch Potato – Biologically a decade older 

              Telomeres, the DNA that bookends our chromosomes, shorten each time a cell

              divides, and when they become too short a cell           

               can no longer divide, so telomeres act as a kind of timer counting down our biological 

              age. The researchers found that people who did not exercise in their spare time had                         

               shorter telomeres than very active people.Hence a couch potato has 10 years older

               Physical health condition than an Active person.  

Hence Office Working population & students should be careful and cautious not to become prey of Active Couch Potato Lifestyle as they use to seat on chair continuously for 6-8 hrs. These population should not remain sited more than 30 mts in one go and try to take drinking water through out the day time. This type of habit will not allow any one to sit on chair due to normal natural call & will also help to come out from the life style of Active Couch Potato. Secondly , daily morning workouts for at least 45 mts will keep any one’s metabolism in the active mode.

Therefore, precaution & awareness is the need of the hour in this world of gazettes to keep oneself out of the Couch Potato Lifestyle.