Fat findings in the workplace

Researchers have been looking for ways to explain rising levels of obesity among Americans, but they may have been failing to point the finger at a major factor: declining activity levels in the workplace.

A recent study published in the peer-reviewed scientific journal PLoS ONE revealed that the percentage of jobs requiring physical activity has dropped from 50 percent to 20 percent since 1960, and that weight gain over the years was proportional to the decline of physically demanding jobs. The findings were reached by comparing body weights collected by the U.S. National Health and Nutrition Examination Surveys to data from the Bureau for Labor Statistics.

The obesity rate for adults has doubled since 1980, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.