A few weeks ago I did a post that included 8 charts on how the U.S. got so obese.
Below is a chart I missed from a paper published in early July. This study argues that less physical activity and not more calories is the primary cause of the obesity epidemic in the U.S. The black lines show the number of people who self-reported no leisure time physical activity in 2009-2010. The blue lines are the historical data from about 20 years ago. Twenty years ago about 19 percent of women and 11 percent of men got no leisure time physical activity. The more recent data shows that about 51% or women and about 44% of men get no leisure time physical activity. In essentially every demographic group there has been a 2-4 fold increase in inactivity over the last 20 years.
So do we have an obesity epidemic or an inactivity epidemic?
