Fitness and Nutrition
Health Facts from The Fitness Buddy
Fact: The US (along with the rest of the planet) is in trouble when it comes to its health.
Fact: From Google:
- Typed in "How many weight loss programs" as of May 2009 there are 30,000,000.
- Typed in "Fitness articles" in 2009 the number is over 25,000,000 and that is just through May!!!
- "Diets" there is ONLY 22,000,000 to choose from.
- "Gyms" there are only 1.1 million.
- "Fast Food Restaurants" 330,000 in the US.
- "Over 30,000 McDonald's worldwide."
- Zero - The number of calories in a plain cup of coffee.
- 490 - Calories in a Starbucks Dulce de Leche Crème with whip Grande with whole milk.
- 2,000 - The total number of calories an average person should have in a day.
- 3,500 - The number of calories you need to burn to lose 1 pound.
Fact: 62% of adults and 34% of children are overweight or obese. Data comes from a survey by the NPD Group
Fact: The percentage of adults who are obese has doubled over the past 30 years from 15% in the late 1970's to about 31% in 2008, from the CDC's National Health and Nutritional Examination Survey
Fact: A Harris poll shows that 80 percent of people older than 25 are overweight based on the body mass index.
Fact: The National Center for Health Statistics reports that the percentage of Americans defined as obese now exceeds the percent that are just overweight 34% to 33%. The big are getting bigger.
Fact: Adults 18 years of age and over who engage in regular leisure-time physical activity is 33% and those who strength train is 20% according to the CDC Health, United States 2008 report.
Fact: The direct and indirect costs of overweight and obesity amounted to about $117 billion in 2000 according to the Surgeon General in 2005.
Fact: This is not just a US problem, The World Health Organization reports that more than 1 billion adults are overweight and at least 300 million of them are clinically obese.
Fact: The International Obesity Task Force estimates that 1 in 7 children in the Americas will be obese by 2010.
Fact: The World Health Organization considers obesity to be 1 of the top 10 causes of preventable death worldwide.
Fact: Non-communicable diseases such as obesity, diabetes, hypertension, stroke and various forms of cancer accounted for 60% of the 55.7 million deaths in 2000. If left unchecked that percentage will grow to nearly 75% by 2020.
Fact: The consequences of being overweight or obese can range from psychological effects that impact quality of life (poor self-esteem, discrimination, depression) to physiological conditions that put an individual at risk for premature death.
- Hypertension
- Dyslipidemia (high total cholesterol or high levels of triglycerides)
- Type 2 diabetes
- Heart Disease
- Stroke
- Gallbladder disease
- Osteoarthritis
- Sleep apnea and respiratory problems
- Some cancers (such as endometrial, breast and colon)