Energy balance
Technological changes that reduce physical activity in home and market production (sedentary work) significantly increase body weight, accounting for approximately 60% of recent obesity growth.
Your job's physical demands are a major determinant of your weight. If you have a sedentary job, you are statistically likely to weigh significantly more (approx. 3.3 BMI units higher) than someone with a physically active job, independent of how much you eat. To counteract this, you must intentionally increase physical activity outside of work hours, as the 'free exercise' provided by strenuous labor is no longer available.
we find that about forty percent of the recent growth in weight seems to be due to agricultural innovation that has lowered food prices, while sixty percent may be due to demand factors such as declining physical activity from technological changes in home and market production.
Why this rating
Uses individual-level longitudinal data (NLSY, NHANES) and robust econometric modeling, though observational rather than experimental.
Source
The Growth of Obesity and Technological Change: A Theoretical and Empirical Examination
Darius Lakdawalla et al. · National Bureau of Economic Research · 2002
DOI 10.3386/w8946
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