Want to help children avoid being overweight? Limiting their TV hours may help.

New Zealand researchers followed nearly 1,000 children, from when the kids were only 3 years old and ended the research at age 15.

The children who watched the most Television and played the most video games were most likely to be overweight. That was especially true of girls, the study shows.

“Television viewing should be regarded as an important contributing factor to childhood obesity,” write the researchers in the International Journal of Obesity.

The study included children born in New Zealand in the early 1970s. Back then, New Zealand had two TV channels, both of which had limited hours.

The kids averaged 2.3 hours of nightly TV time from ages 5 to 15. That’s based on parents’ reports when the kids were little and kids’ own reports as teens.

The research that has been released recently has backed up GetKidsActive.com with our belief that all New Zealand children need to get off the couch and into regular physical activity. This needs to start at school, with the inclusion of the GetKidsActive Fitness Programme, now available for schools. For more information email the GKA team. Activities at home are also crucial, for more ideas view our many articles on activities for children.