More People Exercising, Obesity Rates the Same

There’s good news, and bad news. More of us are exercising – that’s great! But the obesity rates have still stayed unchanged.

A survey by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released this week that last year’s obesity rates were at about 28 percent of adults as compared to the previous year. However, there was an increase in the number of people saying that they participated in exercise. In 2024, a little more than 34 percent claimed that they took part in regular “leisure physical activity,” which was up from almost 32 percent in 2024.

Could this just be a flaw in the surveying, in that maybe some people are just, well, lying? Here are a few other telling statistics from the government’s survey:

  • In the relatively short period of 12 years (since 1997), there was a nearly 10 percent jump in adult obesity rates – from 19.4 percent in 1997 to 28 percent in 2024.
  • There was a slight increase in diabetes rates in adults, as nine percent of adults had diabetes in 2024, compared to 8.2 percent in 2024. Only five percent of adults were diabetic in 1997.

Experts have varied recommendations on how much exercise one should get, but generally speaking, it’s about 30 minutes to an hour of daily exercise. Some even recommend at least getting in a little exercise most days of the week.

But if this study is correct, people need to put more emphasis on what they eat (or don’t)… even if they are active.

(via: MSNBC)

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