It seemed reasonable to expect obesity rates to fall as exercise rates increased. After all, governments around the world have poured millions of dollars into promoting exercise for weight loss, and they succeeded in getting their citizens moving. In the United Kingdom from 1997 to 2008, regular exercise increased from 32 percent to 39 percent in men and 21 percent to 29 percent in women.1 There’s a problem, though. All this activity had no effect on obesity at all. Obesity increased relentlessly, even as we sweated to the oldies.
