If vegging out in front of a TV is your favorite daily hobby, you may be courting an early death – even if you’re not overweight. That’s what Australian researchers found after tracking nearly 9,000 people for an average of six years.

Regardless of whether or not they were overweight, subjects who watched more than four hours daily had a 46% higher risk of premature death, compared with subjects who channel surfed for less than two hours a day.

Television itself isn’t the problem, says study author David Dunstan, of Australia’s Baker IDI Heart and Diabetes Institute. Instead, the danger comes from all that sitting, which takes the place of activity – including even the low-exertion kind that naturally occurs when you’re not glued to the tube. “Too much sitting is, simply, bad for you,” Dunstan says.

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Excessive TV watching has been linked to childhood obesity. The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends that kids under two years old should not watch any TV while those older than two should watch only one to two hours of quality programming a day. Time spent watching TV is time lost for healthy physical and social development.