Being lazy costs a lot of money. Who would have thought?
According to the first study to measure the global cost of being a couch potato, the tab is no less than a whopping $67.5 billion annually.
Australia’s University of Sydney has analyzed data from 2013 from 142 countries, cross-referenced it with five major non-communicable diseases – which would be reduced by exercise – and came up with the cost of being lazy.
Researchers took into account the costs related to colon cancer, diabetes, stroke, coronary heart disease, and breast cancer, but only when the condition was associated with lack of physical activity. These five ailments have been determined to be most commonly to the laziness.
The President’s Council on Fitness, Sports, and Nutrition reports that only one in 3 adults gets enough physical activity per week. The World Health Organization defines that as the equivalent to 150 minutes of moderate-to-intense physical activity each week.
A related study reviewed more than 1 million people and revealed that performing one hour of moderate physical activity per day can cancel the adverse effects of sitting down for 8 hours a day.
There’s a general lack of success in addressing the world’s epidemic of physical inactivity, which has seen a steady rise since 2012. One out of every 4 adults in the world does not perform enough daily physical activity.
Lead author Ulf Ekelund, a professor at the Norwegian School of Sports, said that “Our message is a positive one: it is possible to reduce – or even eliminate – these risks if we are active enough, even without having to take up sports or go to the gym.”
Many people who work in offices do not have time to take a walk in between sitting down for long hours. Professor Ekelund stressed that these individuals must realize it is of the utmost importance to find time to work out, even if it’s jogging in the morning or cycling in the afternoon.
The results of the study were featured in The Lancet, the British medical journal, calling for the world to “get serious about physical activity.”
The true cost of inactivity, defined by WHO as less than 150 minutes per week of moderate-intensity activity, is likely two to three times higher.