Keeping a busy social life amongst lots of friends may keep people slimmer than spending hours on a treadmill, according to scientists。
They say that socializing and meeting with friends helps boost levels of "brown fat" in the body which burns calories to generate heat. And by converting white fat which stores calories and makes us fatter into brown， socializing realizes weight loss。
The research team from Ohio State University came up with their theory by studying the effects of various living environments on mice。
Those who lived alongside a greater number of mice had more space and toys to stimulate them lost far more weight over the course of the study than their "couch potato" counterparts。
Living in a stimulating, social environment was found to reduce abdominal fat in mice by half over four weeks, even if they ate more。
study author Dr Matthew During said, converting white fat into brown is notoriously difficult, normally requiring long term exposure to cold conditions。
He said the degree of fat loss that comes from social activities is far more than you would get with a treadmill。
The findings appear in journal Cell Metabolism。