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Canada's couch potatoes come from two different worlds.

The biggest television watchers are typically single, unemployed high-school dropouts who probably live in the country, according to a new Statistics Canada report that provides a snapshot of screen time among adults. Most are over 75 years old.

By contrast, those who spend their free time behind a computer are typically males in their early 20s, working full time and living in a downtown bachelor pad. Recent immigrants are frequent computer users, too.

But Matlock fans and World of Warcraft lovers may have at least one thing in common: excess pounds. A second Statscan report released yesterday backs up what health experts have been warning for years: The more screen time you log - whether in front of a TV or a computer - the more likely you are to be obese.

The survey, based on data from over 42,000 respondents to the 2007 Canadian Community Health Survey, found that men and women who spend 21 or more hours a week watching TV have almost twice the odds of being obese as people who watch five or fewer hours.

Those who log over 11 hours a week on the computer have a slightly greater chance of being obese than those who spend five hours or less, although the correlation isn't as strong as it is for television. Avid readers, however, were not more prone to being overweight, the researchers found.

"I wanted to provide the profile," said Margot Shields, a Statscan analyst and lead author of both reports.

"Given that we know that frequent television viewing is associated with obesity, it's important to know who it is that is watching ."

As a 25-year-old male living alone in Toronto, Sean Homer certainly fits the profile of a computer addict.

After he finishes his work day at a gaming company in North Toronto, it's "pretty much get home, eat dinner, then all night on the computer," he said.

When he was 21, that routine caused his weight to balloon to 250 pounds, he says.

But computers aren't all bad. After heart problems landed him in hospital, Mr. Homer spent 30 minutes a day playing Dance Dance Revolution, a game that requires players to dance vigorously to music - and he shed 85 pounds.

"It changed my life," he said.

While it's well known that rising screen time is contributing to childhood obesity, this study is one of the first national studies looking to see if there is a link between screen time and obesity among Canadian adults.

But experts point out that because of the way the study was designed, it can't answer questions about cause and effect. It can only show that there are associations between increased screen time and weight.

Joseph Berlingieri, an internist and medical director at Pounds for Health, a medical weight-management and research centre in Burlington, Ont., says the relationship between screen time and weight is like the chicken-and-egg scenario: which comes first?

"Does the sedentary lifestyle cause people to become obese or is it [that] people who become obese are forced into a sedentary lifestyle?" he said. "You don't really know what the triggers are."

Dr. Berlingieri and other doctors say research has shown there is a genetic component to being sedentary, meaning that some people are naturally predisposed to be less active.

"That doesn't mean we don't need to get these people up and moving," said Sean Wharton, an internist in bariatric medicine at McMaster University Health Sciences Centre. "We just can't take it for granted that they can get going in an easy manner."

The Statscan study found that not all sedentary behaviours are the same. The risk of being obese is higher among people who watch a lot of TV compared with those who use computers.

"The question is, what is so special about TV?" said Arya Sharma, professor of medicine at the University of Alberta and scientific director of the Canadian Obesity Network.

One reason, he said, may be that people tend to eat in front of the tube, while computers keep people's hands busy.

That's been the trouble for Charles Cicero, 58, a life-insurance and financial adviser from Hamilton. He weighs 220 pounds - down from almost 290 due to his ongoing weight-loss efforts.

Each day, he swims up to 1.6 kilometres at the local pool, but he also watches about four hours of television. During dinner, he tunes into a football game or Judge Judy, because he's single and prefers not to eat in silence.

"That's one of the worst things you can do: eating while you're distracted," he said.

Last week, determined to get his weight loss back on track, Mr. Cicero called the cable company and cancelled his subscription.

Mr. Homer has also found a way to reconcile his computer addiction and health needs.

Three days a week, he jogs after work. Then he spends the rest of his evening updating his Facebook page and messaging friends.

"TV's not exactly that popular any more," he said, speaking about people his age. "Too many reality shows."