Physical Activities & Obesity

Obesity is a growing problem in the United States, where as many as 50 million adults -- more than a quarter of the population of the United States -- meet the criteria for obesity, according to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Low levels of physical activity may be one of the causes of obesity for many people, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The Facts

Lots of factors -- including age, socioeconomic status, genetics and environment -- contribute to obesity, but in its simplest form, obesity is a case of too much energy coming in and not enough energy going out, explains the CDC. For most people, energy -- or calories -- comes into the body in the form of food and exits the body through physical activity. If you consume more calories than you burn, you'll gain weight; a pattern of this behavior can ultimately lead to obesity. The more physical activity you get, the more calories you burn -- and the less likely you are to be obese.

Immediate Benefits

Physical activity helps you manage your weight in a healthy way. If you're a healthy weight, regular exercise can help you stay that way. If you're overweight or obese, increasing your physical activity can help you lose weight. Preventing or reducing obesity is good for your self image, but it also helps reduce your risk for serious, obesity-related health problems, including heart disease, diabetes and arthritis -- all of which are more likely to occur in people who are carrying too much weight, according to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Even if you don't lose weight, regular exercise can help reduce your risk for these major health problems, found researchers in the Department of Exercise Science and Health Promotion at Florida Atlantic University in research published in the "American Journal of Lifestyle Medicine" in 2007.

Long-Term Benefits

Ultimately, getting regular physical activity may even affect you at a genetic level, making people that carry the genes associated with a predisposition to obesity as much as 40 percent less likely to actually become obese. Researchers at the Medical Research Council Epidemiology Unit in Cambridge, United Kingdom, led by Ruth Loos, found that regular physical activity directly impacted how much weight people gained who carried a genetic predisposition to obesity: the more people exercised, the less weight they gained. The study results were published in a 2010 in the journal "PLoS Medicine."

Other Considerations

Though increasing your physical activity levels can help prevent and combat obesity, other factors can contribute to obesity. Diet, of course, is an important one, and reducing your daily calorie intake and limiting the amount of saturated fat in your diet play a role in maintaining a health weight. Some medical conditions and medications may also contribute to obesity. If you're having trouble losing weight or rapidly gaining weight, talk to your doctor to rule out possible medical causes. If you're new to diet and exercise, talk with your doctor -- she can help you choose the plan that's best for your particular health status.