See how many calories you can burn while watching Breaking Bad, other shows
(If you were to work out on an elliptical while watching the entire series of Breaking Bad, you’d burn 38,868 calories, according to a new study from Netflix).
By Brittany Anas
Here’s a fun health fact to think about: If you were to watch the entire Breaking Bad series while exercising on an elliptical — instead of curled up in bed — you could have burned 38,688 calories. Or, if you were on a treadmill walking at about 4 miles per hour with no incline, you would have scorched away 17,550 calories while watching the addictive (bad pun?) series.
Netflix has a strategy to help you up your fitness in 2014: Swap your couch for your treadmill.
The popular streaming service has revolutionized television watching — giving us instant access to entire series of some of our favorite shows and earning Emmy awards for shows it has produced on its own. With that T.V. trend comes “binge watching” — you know, setting aside an entire weekend to watch the Netflix Original release of Arrested Development. Maybe you were plopped on the couch eating frozen bananas as a tribute to the series. But, if you were to watch every episode in the release while on — say — a stationary bike you could have burned roughly 8,600 calories.
According to a recent Netflix survey among 1,000 Internet users in the United States, more than half of respondents were willing to exercise while “binge watching” their fave shows — rather than just watching from the couch. And, about 45 percent of respondents agreed they would be more motivated to exercise if they had access to their favorite TV shows on-demand and commercial-free while working out.
Sitcoms ranked as the best genre to sweat to, with about 36 percent of people choosing humor and about 27 percent opting for serialized drama. Science fiction and fantasy was picked by 24 percent of the respondents and 20 percent of people chose reality shows.
Watching while working out is a strategy endorsed by Harley Pasternak, a celebrity fitness expert and New York Times best-selling author. Pasternak’s clients include Katy Perry, Kanye West, Megan Fox, Lady Gaga and others.
“Not only does it make your workouts easier, but you end up looking forward to them more,” Pasternak says in a news release. “If you can only watch ‘Breaking Bad’ when you’re on the treadmill, you’re going to find yourself wishing there were more hours in the day to workout.”
Here’s a sample of how much you could burn while watching:
An episode of New Girl, How I Met Your Mother or Family Guy (22 minutes): 117 calories on a stationary bike, 152 calories on the treadmill and 334 calories on the elliptical.
An episode of The Walking Dead, American Horror Story or Burn Notice (44 minutes): 223 calories on the bike, 304 calories on the treadmill and 669 calories on the elliptical.
An entire season of Orange is the New Black: 3,837 calories on the bike, 4,995 on the treadmill and 11,005 on the elliptical.
An entire season of House of Cards: 3,503 calories on the bike, 4,561 on the treadmill and 10,047 on the elliptical.
The entire Breaking Bad series: 13,483 calories on a bike, 17,553 on the treadmill and 38,668 on the elliptical.
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