The latest U.S. survey shows that 57 percent of Americans exercise only occasionally or not at all, a number that corresponds closely with the share of the population that is overweight. Economic modernization has systematically eliminated exercise from our lives. Workers commute by car from home to work in an office or factory, driving quite literally from door to door. Automobiles have eliminated daily walking and cycling. Elevators and escalators have replaced stairs.
Leisure time is spent watching television.
In the United Kingdom, the two lifestyle variables that correlate most closely with obesity are television viewing and automobile ownership. Children who watch television five or more hours a day are five times as likely to be overweight as those who watch less than two hours a day. Time spent playing computer games and surfing the Internet in lieu of playing outside is also contributing to the surge in obesity. A common impulse of those who are overweight is to go on a diet of some sort, attempting to reduce caloric intake to the level of caloric use. Unfortunately, this is physiologically difficult given the abnormally low calorie use associated with our sedentary lifestyles.