Fitness Not Fit
Fitness centers seem to have the same problem as conventional medicine… they cannot and will not deliver expected results. Like their medical counterparts, it’s not bad intentions. It is simply that fitness is not fit to fight the Modern Lifestyle.
Sure. You can have a personal trainer mentor you through your squats and crunches but that trainer is likely not with you when you grab a “healthy” burger from a fast food joint next door. The trainer is not with you when you are trying to pay bills (including the fitness center) and money is tight. The trainer is not with you when you need an ice cream sundae to “relax” with a Netflix binge.
Whether medical care, fitness center, wellness program, etc., to promote real well-being we must first address the elephant in the room… the Modern Lifestyle. As long as consumers are bombarded with “quick fixes” that address only symptoms and not root cause, they will continue running on a treadmill and get nowhere.
Between Soul Cycle, Fitbit, Whole30 diets and social media health gurus, the health and wellness industry is booming — but Americans are more likely to be obese today than ever before.
The problem: Despite promises made by gyms and fitness programs, physical activity does little to help people lose weight, says Ashkan Afshin from the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation at the University of Washington. And Americans’ diets are still terrible.
One key trend: The prevalence of diseases most attributed to obesity — high blood pressure, diabetes and high cholesterol — has held steady or even fallen over the past few years, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
- But that’s mostly due to increased treatment for those conditions, health experts say.
Meanwhile, obesity has created a thriving industry in the U.S., even though many programs have little medical or scientific backing.
The U.S. fitness industry is the most lucrative in the world, bringing in $30 billion worth of revenue in 2017, according to the latest report by the International Health, Racquet and Sportsclub Association (IHRSA) — a global trade association for the fitness industry.
But food is the key problem when it comes to obesity, according to Afshin.
Source: Fitness industry booms, but we’re not getting fitter – Axios
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