Obesity: sedentary lifestyle more culpable than junk food

Sedentary lifestyle is even more harmful than overeating. A study to appear in the August edition of theAmerican Journal of Medicine establishes that lack of physical activity is more responsible for the explosion of obesity in the United States than diet.

Sedentary lifestyle explodes

Researchers surveyed 92,000 people between 1988 and 2010. Participants specified how often, intensity and duration they exercised in the month before the survey. The evolution of obesity was also monitored. Over the period of follow-up, the rate of obese people skyrocketed: from 25 to 35% in women, 20 to 35% in men. There is a similar increase in the proportion of people with too much belly fat. However, the amount of calories consumed has not really changed.

“What struck us the most is how much leisure physical activity has evolved,” admits Uri Ladabaum, lead author of the study. “We cannot draw any conclusions about cause and effect, but our results support the idea that exercise and physical activity are critical in the course of obesity. The figures confirm this observation and show a worrying trend: one in two women is sedentary, against 19% in 1988. As for men, it is not better: they are 43% to present a complete sedentary lifestyle, against 11% in 1988 .

Too busy dailies

This study constitutes a real “clarion blow” in the eyes of the editorial director of theAmerican Journal of Medicine : “Societal and economic forces are at work, and we must resolve them,” she says. “Take for example the struggle of single mothers, who try to juggle between work and children. They may lack the time or resources to exercise. We shouldn’t just assume they’re lazy. Their lives are sometimes too busy. “

However, regular physical activity is crucial. A sedentary lifestyle, but also the obesity which is associated with it, greatly increases the risk of cardiovascular disease or cancer.