The Atlanta Journal and Constitution
Busy lives, cars likely causes of our obesity Lillian Lee Kim - Staff
Thursday, October 28, 1999

Did you exercise yesterday?

Oh, you sigh, I meant to, but it's so hard to wake up early now that it's dark in the mornings, and then I had to get the kids to school. And after work traffic stunk, and I knew the gym would be too crowded and then, of course, the game was on . . .

Those are the excuses. Here are the realities.

We know by now that exercise is key to losing weight and improving health.

Yet obesity rates are at an all-time high, especially in Georgia, where the percentage of obese adults doubled from 1991 to 1998, according to the latest report by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Obviously, Georgians aren't exercising.

But no one knows precisely why. All we have are common excuses and obvious theories: Lack of time, over-dependence on cars and other conveniences, basic inertia.

"We don't have any real data that tells us why people aren't more active," said Carol Macera, an epidemiologist with the CDC's Physical Activity and Health branch. "What we have is the data that tells us people aren't active."

A 1998 CDC report says Georgia had the highest percentage of adults in the nation who said they didn't do any physical activity during their leisure time. Not insignificantly, the report was titled "Chronic Diseases and Their Risk Factors: The Nation's Leading Causes of Death."

"Georgia was ahead of Louisiana or Mississippi?" marveled Richard Cotton, chief exercise physiologist for the American Council on Exercise.

Yep.

Not everyone agrees with such rankings, however.

"The problem with inactivity is nationwide," said Rod K. Dishman, professor of exercise science at the University of Georgia. "I have no reason to think Georgians are different from anyone else in the United States."

The non-natives who snorted upon reading that opinion have a sympathizer in Emory University's Dr. John Xerogeanes, who moved to Georgia from Colorado six weeks ago.

"In Colorado, people live to enjoy the outdoors," said Xerogeanes, who is chief of sports medicine at the Emory Healthcare Sports Medicine Clinic. "Out there, people work to live. Here, they work to have the big house or nice things, but not to live life."

So there's no consensus on whether Georgians really are lazier than the rest of the country.

And Macera acknowledges that leisure-time physical activity isn't necessarily a good measurement of the overall activity of people. Manual laborers or others whose jobs are physically demanding may not do any extra activity when they go home, but their total daily movement probably exceeds that of a desk jobber who plays squash for a half hour after work.

"Measuring physical activity is an evolving science," Macera said. "We're trying to measure the physical activity that we associate with the health benefits that we want."

The catch is, we've managed to eliminate a lot of basic physical activity from our daily lives.

"So many things have removed calorie-burning activities from our day," said Edmund Burke, director of the exercise science program at the University of Colorado at Colorado Springs.

"People take the elevator, take the escalator, sit at their desks all day," said Burke, who is an adviser to the upcoming fitness Internet site eFit.com. "They have remote controls, electric toothbrushes, so many little things. It drives me nuts when I see people taking the elevator up two stories, or get on the escalator and stop walking."

Atlanta's dependence on vehicles and the corresponding lack of sidewalks is a major activity barrier.

"You have to drive every place you go because we're so spread out," said Alpharetta's Lou Moffatt, general manager and vice president of training for Weight Watchers' Southeastern market.

"We walk nowhere, and we drive everywhere," Moffatt said. "That's the biggest contributor to our lack of movement. We haven't been able to build a nice brisk walk into our day.

"But these are all excuses," Moffatt added. "If you want to exercise, you can. You've got to want to."