Obese Women Get an Hour of Exercise Per Year, Study Finds

Obese women exercise for just an hour each year, according to a new study.

Obesity is a chronic health condition affecting 35.7 percent of all adults living in the U.S. The condition raises risk of several diseases including heart disease and diabetes.

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recommends that people get two hours and 30 minutes ( 150 minutes) of moderate intensity physical activity every week and two or more days of muscle strengthening exercise.

The current study by researchers from the University of Alabama at Birmingham shows that physical activity levels among obese are much lower than expected with obese women getting only an hour and men clocking close to four hours of exercise per year, HealthDay reported

"They're living their lives from one chair to another," said Edward Archer, a research fellow with the Nutrition Obesity Research Center at the University of Alabama at Birmingham, according to HealthDay. "We didn't realize we were that sedentary. There are some people who are vigorously active, but it's offset by the huge number of individuals who are inactive."

The study was based on data from 2,600 adults who wore accelerometers (motion sensors), which logged-in their daily physical activity. In the study, vigorous exercise was defined as any physical activity that burnt fat, HealthDay reported.  

Researchers found that on an average, men get about 3.6 hours of vigorous exercise a year while women get just an hour.

Why are the exercise levels so low?

"I think they're living the typical life. They drive their children to school, they sit at a desk all day long, they may play some video games and they go to sleep," Archer told HealthDay.

The study is published in the journal Mayo Clinic Proceedings.

A recent study showed that sitting too much can increase disability risk in old age, even in people who are otherwise physically active. Also, sedentary lifestyle is associated with reduction in lifespan.