Modern mothers do less housework than 30 years ago. Conversely, they spend more time watching TV. This sedentary lifestyle also sets in among men and children.
Are today’s women less active than those of yesteryear? In any case, this is what an American study suggests this Wednesday according to which women with children are now more sedentary than before. The fault above all with the current way of life (TV, computer …) which does not encourage people to play sports. As a result of this phenomenon, the calories remain and the pounds too. These results, already controversial, were published in the medical journal Mayo Clinic Proceedings.
11 hours less per week of activity physical
To reach this conclusion, researchers at the University of South Carolina (United States) first analyzed the responses of a cohort of women aged over 45, with children between 5 and 18 years old. . Result: compared to mothers in the same situation in 1965, mothers in 2010 spent, on average, 11 hours less per week on physical activity, such as cleaning, cooking, babysitting, but also physical exercise. Conversely, these same women spend seven more hours per week doing sedentary activities, such as surfing the web or watching television.
And this is the same for younger women with children under 5 years old. Physical activity fell for these women by about 14 hours per week in 2010 (compared to 1965), while at the same time, sedentary activities increased by about six hours per week. To avoid any controversy, these scientists indicate that according to previous research, this observation would be the same for men, especially concerning the increase in sedentary activities.
Less activity equals less calories burned
This redistribution of free time at home also means that contemporary women burn fewer calories than before. At the rate of two hours less exercise per day, they also burn 225 fewer calories per day compared to their elders. This still makes 1573 fewer calories burned each week.
“Over the generations, mothers are more and more sedentary. This sedentary lifestyle increases the threat of obesity. This inactivity also potentially predisposes their children, who often follow this rhythm, to an increased risk of adiposity and chronic diseases, such as diabetes, ”said Dr. Archer, lead author of the study.
But for women who would now like to rush into household chores to compensate for this lack of physical activity, don’t panic ladies! Because vacuuming or washing the windows is not a physical activity intense enough to have beneficial effects on health, recently revealed British researchers. According to them, housework is not a real physical activity. As a result, they believe that the latter do not have the desired effect on risk factors for cardiovascular disease or obesity, in the same way as real physical activity.
The sedentary lifestyle of children harms their hearts for a long time
Finally, British scientists also estimated in November that a sedentary lifestyle was also settling in children. In a study involving nearly 23,000 schoolchildren aged 9 to 11, they noted that these young people were spending more and more hours in front of the television or the computer. And these new habits are not without negative effects on their health. These bad habits, they say, increase the risk of developing heart disease in adulthood.
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