The government's responsibility to get Americans moving will be discussed at the three-day Weight of the Nation conference next week. Public health advocates, government leaders and obesity researchers will meet in Washington, D.C.
You drive to the office, sit at a computer all day, drive home and then park yourself on the couch.
If that's your life, leading obesity experts say, the government should be changing your environment and making it possible for you to become more active.
There has been a big reduction in "muscle-power transportation," such as walking or biking to work or to the store, says Russell Pate, an exercise researcher at the University of South Carolina-Columbia. This is partly because of sprawling communities and long commutes, but he says it's also because people don't have safe places to walk.
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"If we have safe routes, sidewalks, bike trails that go to destinations that people need to get to, then those trails will be more heavily used," Pate says.
The government's responsibility to get Americans moving will be discussed at the three-day Weight of the Nation conference next week. Public health advocates, government leaders and obesity researchers will meet in Washington, D.C.
