A couch potato is (originally U.S.) slang for a person who spends most or much of his time sitting or lying on a couch, or perhaps an armchair or recliner,[1] watching television in his underwear and often drinking beer. Typically, couch potatoes are supposed to be overweight or out of shape.

Some studies have said that the "couch potato lifestyle" is a serious health hazard to its practitioners[2]; in the United Kingdom, a plan of the Prime Minister's Strategy Unit tied attempts "to combat the couch potato culture" to "[improving the U.K.'s] international sporting performance" [3].

Ten studies presented at the 2003 meeting of the American College of Sports Medicine suggested that there could be a genetic basis for the "couch potato lifestyle".[4]

Various activities have been designed for or around the couch potato, including a type of investment portfolio ("Couch Potato Portfolio")[5], and fantasy football leagues .

The phrase has coined a spin-off 'mouse potato' (or 'computer potato'), meaning one who spends too much time in front of a computer. The origin of the neologism 'mouse potato', obviously a play on words between a (computer) mouse and a couch, is unknown.

External links

• "Are You a Couch Potato?" (BBC News)
• Being Lazy with a Couch Potato Portfolio
• Couch Potato
• The Couch Potato's Career Guide by Dave Murphy
• "Couch potato lifestyle could lie in genes" (Contra Costa Times) (originally from Wall Street Journal)
• From Couch Potato to Mouse Potato
• "Roasting the couch potato: Audiences are not living up to the lazy armchair stereotype any more" by Rosie Teasdale, in Oxford Student (May 2, 2002)
• howstuffworks: Why can a trained athlete run a marathon, but a couch potato cannot run half a mile?

Couch Potato is also the name of:

• a song by Weird Al Yankovic
• a television program formerly shown on the Australian Broadcasting Corporation
• a game run by Fox 6 XETV from San Diego, California
• a Washington State instant lottery game.