People Weren’t So Lazy Back Then: How Americans Changed Over the Last 200 Years

Study comparing 19th- and 21st-century Americans finds a half-hour decline in daily physical activity.

Today, Americans have access to what feels like an endless amount of workout routines, huge gyms, and even high-end home workout equipment like the Peloton. Despite all that, new research estimates that the average American does about 30 minutes less physical activity a day than an American 200 years ago. That’s the conclusion reached by researchers from the lab of evolutionary biologist Daniel E. Lieberman after using data on falling body temperature in the U.S. and changing metabolic rates to measure declining levels of physical activity in the U.S. since the industrial revolution. The work is described in Current Biology. The scientists found that since 1820, resting metabolic rate (or the total number of calories burned when the body is completely at rest) has declined by about 6 percent for Americans, which translates to about 27 minutes per day of less moderate to vigorous physical activity than 200 years ago. The reason, the authors say, is largely because of technology. “Instead of walking to work, we take cars or trains; instead of manual labor in factories, we use machines,” said Andrew K. Yegian, a postdoctoral fellow in the Department of Human and Evolutionary Biology and the paper’s lead author. “We’ve made technology to do our physical activity for us….Our hope is that this helps people think more about the long-term changes of activity that have come with our changes in lifestyle and technology.” Read more...

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