“Fat” may be the new normal in America. Drawing on data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, a report from JAMA Internal Medicine found that more than three quarters of American adults today are either overweight or obese. And for the first time in history, the number of obese people has surpassed that of the overweight. In the past two decades, especially, America’s weight problem has grown dramatically, inspiring a surge of new programs and products designed to promote better health and help Americans shed the extra pounds.
But new statistics published by the Physical Activity Council suggest a need for more aggressive efforts to combat the issue. In 2015, about 81.6 million Americans were completely inactive. In addition to factors such as genetics, emotional instability and sleeplessness, lack of physical activity is one of the leading causes of obesity.
