Less exercise, not more calories, responsible for expanding waistlines

And they keep inventing, and people keep buying, devices to remove even small amounts of physical effort from our lives.

http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2014-07/ehs-len070714.php

PUBLIC RELEASE DATE: 7-Jul-2014
Contact: Jane Grochowski
Elsevier Health Sciences
Less exercise, not more calories, responsible for expanding waistlines

Lack of leisure-time physical activity linked to increased obesity, particularly in young women, reports the American Journal of Medicine

Philadelphia, PA, July 7, 2014 – Sedentary lifestyle and not caloric intake may be to blame for increased obesity in the US, according to a new analysis of data from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES). A study published in the American Journal of Medicine reveals that in the past 20 years there has been a sharp decrease in physical exercise and an increase in average body mass index (BMI), while caloric intake has remained steady. Investigators theorized that a nationwide drop in leisure-time physical activity, especially among young women, may be responsible for the upward trend in obesity rates.

By analyzing NHANES data from the last 20 years, researchers from Stanford University discovered that the number of US adult women who reported no physical activity jumped from 19.1% in 1994 to 51.7% in 2010. For men, the number increased from 11.4% in 1994 to 43.5% in 2010. During the period, average BMI has increased across the board, with the most dramatic rise found among young women ages 18-39.

"These changes have occurred in the context of substantial increases in the proportion of adults reporting no leisure-time physical activity, but in the absence of any significant population-level changes in average daily caloric intake," explains lead investigator Uri Ladabaum, MD, MS, Associate Professor of Medicine (Gastroenterology and Hepatology), Stanford University School of Medicine. "At the population level, we found a significant association between the level of leisure-time physical activity, but not daily caloric intake, and the increases in both BMI and waist circumference."

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