Americans are less active today than ever before, which contributes to the high rate of overweight and obesity. One reason for the increase of inactivity is that our environment offers many more conveniences than ever before, such as elevators,escalators, and remote controls. There are also more people driving cars instead of walking, and there has been a decrease of manual labor in the workforce. More and more people are taking desk jobs where physical activity is nonexistent. At the same time, a large amount of unhealthy foods have been introduced into the market. Many of these fat free and sugar free foods are foods full of added unhealthy carbohydrates and fake sugars (especially chips and the like). These are foods that only add to the waistline. With all of this going on, it is important that we work hard to make physical activity a part of our lifestyle. With physical activity we give ourselves a fighting chance against obesity.

Daily activity (exercise or lifestyle) is important for weight loss, maintenance of weight loss and general good health. The U.S. Surgeon General recommends moderate physical activity on most days of the week of at least 30 minutes per day for adults and 60 minutes per day for children.

Tips to making physical activity a daily routine:

• Let your doctor know if you are starting a new or strenuous exercise routine to make sure that it's safe for you.
• Begin your routine slowly. Gradually increase intensity.
• Select exercise activities that you enjoy and that can be scheduled into a regular routine.
• Add lifestyle activity every chance you get, like taking stairs instead of using elevators or parking farther away from a store entrance than you normally do. Small steps like these can make drastic differences over time.