Fifteen percent of Americans don’t exercise, and nearly a third of people in seven states – primarily the south – are completely inactive, new maps from Centers for Disease Control and Prevention show.
A sedentary lifestyle – defined as not engaging in physical activity outside of the basic movements from the sofa to the kitchen or the car to your desk – is a risk factor for one in ten early deaths.
Despite the wave of health, wellness, and fitness gurus in the U.S. in recent years, Americans are generally still couch potatoes.
Coloradans do slightly better, with only 17.3 percent qualifying as ‘inactive’, while nearly half of the people in Puerto Rico get no exercise.
The CDC warns that if the sedentary trend continues, a sedentary life will cost US $ 117 billion a year.
Southerners have the worst sedentary problem, with 30 percent or more (dark red) not reporting physical activity in their free time. People in the West are often more active, (green)
Continuing would reduce Americans’ risks for many of the leading causes of death in the US, including heart disease, diabetes and cancer.
Heart disease kills about 647,000 Americans every year.
At least 200,000 of these could be prevented by lifestyle changes such as quitting smoking, eating less salt and exercising.
But it doesn’t seem that Americans have understood the message.
“Too many adults are inactive and they may not know how much it affects their health,” said Dr. Ruth Petersen, director of the CDC’s Department of Nutrition, Exercise and Obesity.
“Being physically active helps you sleep better, feel better, and reduce the risk of obesity, heart disease, type 2 diabetes, and some cancers.”
Still, according to the CDC figures, more than 15 percent of American adults are not released on Thursday.
No region on the mainland is more bank sensitive than the South, where a composite 28 percent of people don’t move more than absolutely necessary.
In Alabama, Arkansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Oklahoma, and Tennessee, 30 percent or more people ages 18 and older effectively report no physical activity.
The same is true for Guam and Puerto Rico, where 47.7 percent of residents admit to be totally inactive.
Westerns are the most active regionally, with a relatively low 20.5 percent of people not spending any of their free time on activities such as going to the gym, gardening or taking a walk.
The Northeast and Midwest have similar average physical activity, with about a quarter of residents confessing to be inactive.
it is not clear exactly why activity levels differ from region to region, but some studies suggest that urbanites exercise more than rural residents and suburbs.
Tired than 30 percent of Spanish adults in 22 states reported being physically inactive (dark red)
Rates were comparatively high in as many as 23 U.S. states among black Americans. Only in Oregon did inactivity rates drop below 20 percent (green)
So places with wide strips of open land, like some southern states, are more likely to have a low activity rate than coastal areas with higher concentrations of cities.
Inactivity is alarmingly more common among minorities than white Americans.
Nearly half of the U.S. states and Puerto Rico had an inactivity rate of 30 percent or higher among their Spanish and black residents.
Participants in a 2006 survey of black Americans often cited time constraints, lack of motivation, health problems, fatigue, and simply not having the know-how as reasons for not training.
Members of these communities may tend to work longer hours and participate more in family and childcare activities, giving them less time to focus on their own health.
The CDC aims to get more Americans moving by 2027, with the goal of 25 minutes of physical activity a day, or 30 minutes five times a week.
Individuals and families are encouraged to incorporate physical activity into their day by taking a brisk walk or walk, walking the dog, choosing the stairs instead of the elevator or escalator, parking further in the parking lot, walk or cycle to run run errands and get off the bus early and walk the rest of the way, ‘the agency wrote.
“The key is to move more and sit less.”
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