Is Technology Making You Fat?

Unless you've boycotted all news outlets for the last few years, you've probably heard that childhood obesity has become an "epidemic" in the U.S. This is not the time nor place to argue over the definition of epidemic or discuss the difference between a disease and a condition, but suffice it to say that both the numbers and percentages of overweight kids (and grownups) are rising. According to the CDC, over 16% of adolescents and children in the United States are considered obese based on body mass index (BMI) scores. For adults, it's more than 30%. This represents a large increase over the last twenty years:
Obesity and Overweight: Trends: U.S. Obesity Trends | DNPAO | CDC

Why are we gaining all this weight? Various theories have been offered, but one of the most prevalent is that we aren't necessarily eating a lot more, or even eating more of the wrong foods; the big problem is that we're getting much less exercise. And if we think about why our children are less active than we were as kids (and why we're less active than our parents were), it's hard to avoid the conclusion that technology has something to do with it.

Many of us spend most of our time sitting in front of a computer all day. That's what I've been doing for a living for more than a decade, and I'm certainly not as svelte as I was back when I was doing police defensive tactics training every day. When business is good, it's hard to find the time to exercise, so whatever food we do eat turns to fat.

But it's not just our jobs that are to blame. Leisure activities today seem to put much more emphasis on the "leisure" and much less on the "activity" than they did years ago. Sitting (or lying!) on the sofa while watching TV doesn't do much for your health - especially if you're being constantly bombarded by food commercials that entice you to head for the kitchen every half hour for a "little" snack to enhance your viewing pleasure. Media Centers and home theaters and awesome lifelike HD technology is great, but if it keeps you on that couch every evening, you may end up with fewer years to enjoy it.

Technology has made our lives so much easier. I remember when my mom had to hang clothes out in the sun to dry. Today not only do we not have the time to do that, but in many cities, ordinances and homeowners' association rules won't even allow you to have an outdoor clothesline if you wanted one. Not that many of us want one. It's far easier to throw those wet clothes in the dryer - but then you miss out on the health benefits of all that lifting and carrying and bending and standing. The same thing happens with dishwashers, microwave ovens, garage door openers and all the other electronic gadgets that do for us what we used to expend physical energy doing. There are even robotic vacuum cleaners that dutifully scoot around the room and clean it without your help. And it's not just housewives whose lifestyles have changed. Remember when the man of the house used to spend the weekend pushing a lawnmower? Now he can sit atop a riding model and let it do the hard work - or if he has a few more bucks, he can buy a robotic lawn mower that works a lot like that robotic vacuum cleaner:
Robomow Lawn Mower - Automatic Lawnmower

To counter the effects of this reduction in the need to do physical labor, we use the time that the technology saves us to go to the gym, jog in the park or become a slave to the exercycle, Stairmaster, treadmill or elliptical machine. Many of us spend hundreds or thousands of dollars per year on fitness club memberships, equipment or even personal trainers - yet we can't seem to accomplish what came naturally to previous generations, without spending an extra dime.

As for the kids, they're video game whizzes but many of them never get out of the house to run and play like we did back in the "olden days." That's not entirely their faults; many parents today are scared to let their children walk to school or ride their bikes around the neighborhood, lest the kids be abducted by pedophiles. Modern technology, in the form of twenty-four hour cable news networks and Internet news sites, has made us all much more aware of the possibilities, in many cases to the point of paranoia. So the kids stay in and watch TV and play World of Warcraft and update their MySpace pages - and may end up being exposed to far more dangerous criminals online than they would ever run across in their suburban subdivisions. And while they chat and surf the web and rack up points on their favorite game sites, they're munching on chips and pizza and piling on the pounds.

If technology created (or at least exacerbated) this problem, can technology help to solve it? The surprise best seller in the game console industry is the Nintendo Wii, and one of its big selling points is its new form of player interaction. The Wii was the first gaming unit to really take advantage of technology that can detect movement in three dimensions, allowing players to control their on-screen avatars by actually getting up and moving, rather than just manipulating a hand held controller.

Nintendo has been making home video game equipment since the 1970s and had much success with early systems, as well as the portable Gameboy. The company had taken a bit of a backseat in recent years, as Sony's Playstation and Microsoft's Xbox gained market share, but the Wii brought Nintendo back with a bang. An unexpected audience for the Wii turned out to be senior citizens:
Senior Citizens Going Nuts for Nintendo Wii - Switched

Children, seniors and many folks in between are discovering a way to play tennis, golf, bowl, box, play baseball and otherwise get active in the safety of their homes without greens fees, club memberships or trips to the park. Wii Fit is a game that's specifically devoted to different types of exercises (Yoga, balance games, strength training and aerobics):
Wii Fit

Every year at this time, one of the most common New Year's resolutions is to lose weight. Just getting up off our behinds and getting active will go a long way toward attaining that goal, but if you want to count calories, too, you can put technology to work for you there as well. There are numerous software programs that will help you calculate the calories, carbohydrates, fat and protein in your meals, keep track of the totals and give you incentives to stay on your diet. Some of the diet management programs are very simple and some are complex; some programs are free and others are commercial products. A simple search for "diet software" will turn up hundreds of results. Of course, before making any drastic changes to your diet or undertaking a new exercise program, you should check with your doctor first and start out slowly.

Like many other folks, I'm ready to get back in shape in 2009, and instead of sitting around and blaming my computer and TV and time-saving appliances for my weight gain, I intend to use technology to help reverse the process. I've found a diet management application for my Windows Mobile phone that I can use to keep track of what I'm eating and the nutritional value of my food, no matter where I am. I'm going to utilize our great new TV as a way to make exercise less boring, instead of an opportunity to sit idle. I'm even thinking about buying a Wii. Of course, some of my plans don't rely on technology so much. I plan to spend more time in the pool this year (swimming, not just soaking), take more walks along the lakefront, park a little further back toward the back of the parking lot, and take the stairs a bit more often instead of the elevator.

How about you? Do you think technology has made you gain weight or become less fit? Do your kids engage in less physical activity than you did at the same age? Have you ever tried using diet management software to lose weight? Have you tried or considered trying the Wii or other games because of the purported fitness benefits? Let us know your opinions