by Kraig Mcfadden

Created on: January 09, 2011   Last Updated: January 10, 2011

Yes!  Of course I think that being more active will help our country get back into shape.  There's always more to it than just exercise; for example, we have to eat healthier (in particular, less sugar and more fruits and vegetables), we have to take more time during the day to move, and we have to really make a conscious effort to change our lifestyles and make them better for us.  After all, what's the point of a lifestyle that isn't good for your life?  But exercising more is a great step towards a decline in our obesity problem.  Exercise is something that a lot of Americans don't get enough of, and I think that that is a big factor and needs to be changed.

Firstly, let's talk a little about the way a lot of Americans live.  We all know that food gives us calories and that calories build up as fat when we don't burn them off.  Many Americans take in way too many calories a day, at fast food joints or just by eating any fatty, sugary foods.  Our portion sizes tend to be huge, and it's rarely the good foods that we're eating a lot of.  In short, the freedoms we have to work, to buy, and to eat are being taken for granted.  We have jobs to have money to have food, and we eat it all and go back for more.  Not enough people stop to think what all that bad, processed food is going to do to them if they eat it excessively, and those are the people that end up obese.  To make matters worse, we live fairly sedentary lives.  We sleep, then we get up, get ready, and sit in the car on the way to work.  Then, there are many jobs out there where people then sit down at a desk all day and do paperwork, phone calls, etc.  Then we sit back in the car, go home, and sit on the couch.  Then we sleep again.  There was very little exercise happening in that scenario, and that coupled with our food intake leads to huge amounts of fat being stored. 

With all that happening to so many people, it can seem a bit overwhelming.  What can we do about this?  Well, there were two huge factors I mentioned above: food intake (namely unhealthy food), and amount of exercise being done.  We can either lower the food intake, or up the exercise, or both.  The topic here is upping the exercise, and that is a great first step because even if we continue eating way too much each day, we can do more exercise and burn more of those calories.  More calories burned means less fat stored, and that would mean a decline in obesity.  In fact, just doing more exercise could be all a person needs.  If someone is just eating a little bit more each day than they should, they could go for a twenty minute jog and burn those excess calories off.  If all it takes is twenty minutes each day to lead a healthier life, everyone should be doing it! 

All in all, more exercise can help to fix the obesity problem in America.  If people burn more calories than they currently do, they'll be storing less fat and getting more into shape.  Exercise probably can't fix everything for everyone; you need a healthy diet to go along with that, but it can be a great way to get started.  If everyone just makes little changes to their lives, like taking a walk here and there, riding a bike to where you need to go (if it's close by), or hopping on a treadmill or into a gym once in a while, then we could all live so much healthier and so much longer.  Sometimes all it takes is as little as twenty minutes a day, and everyone should be able to take time from their schedule to be healthier, because that schedule won't matter if you're sick, unhealthy, or dead.

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