No matter what time you set on your alarm clock, you keep pounding the snooze button until 8:30 every morning. Barreling out of bed in a panic, you hit the shower, race out the door, and clock into work just ten minutes late with a coffee and giant muffin in hand.

You work through lunch while chowing down a burger and fries that you barely notice, but by 3 p.m. you're crashing, so you're off to the vending machine for an infusion of chocolate, vowing to hit the gym after work and buy salad fixings on the way home. But by the time you finally finish work and head out to the car it's late and you're tired, and . . . well, you know the rest.

If this sounds familiar you're not alone: This pattern of eating is typical for scores of college students and young professionals, who are experiencing unprecedented levels of obesity and diabetes -- ailments previously associated with older adults.

It turns out that in the gluttonous '90s, the group with the most dramatic gains around the middle wasn't middle-aged. College-educated 18- to 29-year-olds, usually presumed to be both the most active and image-conscious age group, had the highest increase in obesity of any group.

By 2006, a study by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) found that 28.5 percent of Americans between the ages of 20 and 39 were obese. If you count those who are overweight or obese, it jumps to 57 percent. (Overweight is defined as a body mass index of 25 to 29; obesity is marked by a BMI of 30 or more. BMI is basically a number based on your weight and height.)

While that's still the smallest obesity rate among adults (close to 40 percent of 40- to 59-year-olds are obese), it represents a huge increase over the 1994 rate of 15 percent.

Likewise, the proportion of obese college-educated Americans – 15.7 percent in 2001 -- increased by more than 49 percent over 1991 rates, while those with a high school education and below saw their obesity numbers increase by only about 42 percent during this period.

Why are well-educated 20-somethings packing on the pounds? Fast food and desk jobs, experts say, are the primary culprits.

"We suspect that the majority of these folks are sitting in front of a computer most of the day, eating fast food, and not getting much leisure activity because they work long days," says David Ramsey, a nutrition and health official at the CDC.

Quite simply, many people in this generation are consuming significantly more calories than they're burning.

In fact, Americans need to exercise at least an hour a day to stay healthy, according to guidelines issued in September 2002 by the national Institute of Medicine. Members of a 21-person panel that issued the guidelines said they were concerned about the jump in obesity rates over the last few decades. Adults and children should spend at least an hour a day doing moderately intense activities, such as walking, swimming, or bicycling, they said. The CDC recommends getting at least 30 minutes of moderate exercise five days a week, but also notes that more vigorous activity more often will reap greater health benefits.

Computers brought a welcome reduction in the mind-numbing tasks we used to perform manually, but you might say technology is now numbing our backsides instead. Before the Internet revolution, for example, we might have traveled across town for a business meeting; now we sit in on a video conference call instead. Before the advent of email, we might have trotted upstairs to go over a draft presentation with a coworker; now we just zap her a copy electronically. The average worker at the turn of the 20th century put in about three hours of strenuous labor per day. One hundred years later, that number is down to just five minutes.

And while it may seem that the 20-somethings are the ones crowding the gym and bike paths, it turns out that nearly one-third of them aren't exercising at all. According to one government study 29.6 percent of 18- to 24-year olds surveyed in 2003 were inactive.

Former U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Tommy Thompson may have put it best when he said American society had mistakenly "made fitness a fad rather than a way of life."

Let's face it: Most college-educated Americans in their 20s know that they should be physically active and eat healthy foods, but many seem to find the task too overwhelming. All the emphasis our society places on perfect bodies and dieting, experts say, may be intimidating people out of taking smaller steps toward good health -- like taking a half-hour walk each day.

"I know what foods I should and shouldn't eat," says Melissa Hennings, a tech worker in San Francisco. "But often it's a matter of not having much time, and the convenience of eating out rather than making dinner at home. It can also be an issue of not really knowing how to cook."

When she was living in the Midwest in her early 20s, Hennings regularly dined on burgers, fries, pizza and Chinese food. "If I hadn't had an active job at the time -- waiting tables -- I could have easily gotten huge," she admits.

Across the board, frequent dining out is one of the leading contributors to extra pounds. Restaurant food, whether it's from McDonald's or Maxim's, is significantly higher in fat and calories than typical meals prepared at home.

Every year Americans spend more of their food dollars on meals consumed away from home, reaching 40 percent in 2006. And in general, Americans today are taking in 530 more calories daily than they were 35 years ago, according to the U. S. Department of Agriculture. That's the equivalent of one quarter pound hamburger with cheese, and while that may not sound like much, it's enough to pack on an extra 50 pounds in one year.

The good news is that this equation is reversible with a few minor changes. Cutting back by just 250 calories a day can make a big difference in the long run. That's equal to a can of soda and less than one small bag of potato chips. Add in some daily exercise and you're on your way to being fitter and healthier. Doctors and nutritionists recommend 30 minutes of exercise daily such as brisk walking, but if you can't fit that in, even 10-minute spurts are beneficial. Small changes, such as parking your car a bit farther away from work or taking the stairs instead of the elevator can add up to better health.

In addition to increased soft drink consumption, the "supersize revolution" of the 1990s -- during which everything from french fries to frozen dinners swelled to gargantuan sizes -- has no doubt taken a toll on 20-somethings' waistlines. In fact, the foods that are selling best these days also happen to be about the worst for us.

It probably comes as no surprise that "empty calorie" foods are also the most aggressively advertised. According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, companies spent $765 million advertising candy and gum, $728 million on beer, and $549 million on carbonated soft drinks in 1997. Only $105 million is spent annually promoting fruits and vegetables.

Finally, experts say, the fact that nutritious foods can sometimes cost more than sugary snack foods (think vending machine candy bars vs. apple slices) gives young people an added economic incentive to eat poorly.

Such discrepancies in food costs and advertising expenditures have led some health experts to argue that we should institute a national "junk food tax," similar to cigarette and alcohol taxes. Such a measure would not only even out the playing field, says Dr. Margo Wootan, D.Sc., and obesity expert at the Center for Science in the Public Interest, but the money generated by the tax could be spent on campaigns to promote healthy eating and exercise programs.

"People have thought about nutrition and physical activity as purely a matter of personal responsibility for a long time," says Wootan. But now that obesity has reached epidemic levels in the United States, she says, it's clearer than ever that we're not dealing with a few individuals' lack of will power or laziness. "Unless the U.S. government starts treating the nation's poor eating and exercise habits as a public health issue," Wootan says, "the problem will only continue to get worse."

In 2002, the Secretary of Health and Human Services seemed to acknowledge this shift in focus during a speech outlining government plans to curb the obesity epidemic. "We need to stop the guilt-ridden lectures and start showing people the enjoyable and doable steps they can take to better health," he said.

At that time, Thompson's office unveiled a plan calling for a national policy shift aimed at encouraging employers to subsidize employees' gym memberships, persuading food manufacturers to reduce their portion sizes, and spreading the word that combating obesity is a health issue, not a matter of vanity. Thompson pointed out that diabetes, obesity, and smoking are collectively responsible for more than 1 million deaths a year in the United States, costing the economy about $360 billion annually. Additionally, American Cancer Society researchers say that poor nutrition, physical inactivity and obesity account for about one-third of all cancer deaths in this country.

In July 2002, three U.S. senators introduced the first bill dealing specifically with American's obesity epidemic. The Improved Nutrition and Physical Activity Act has yet to become law. If it were passed into law, it would fund a series of community programs aimed at reducing obesity, including exercise programs in daycare centers and nursing homes, the construction of bike paths, and nutrition education programs in schools. Not everyone is happy with the bill, though. Peggy Agron, director of Project LEAN (Leaders Encouraging Activity and Nutrition) and a registered dietitian, feels that changing the food served in school cafeterias would benefit kids more than nutrition education programs. Still, experts say, the bill is a step in the right direction.

Doctors should also be part of the effort, according to a report in the December 2003 issue of the Annals of Internal Medicine.

Despite the increase in obesity, only 42 percent of overweight adults have been told by their doctors or healthcare workers to lose weight, according to the journal.

That's the reason why government health officials at the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force recommend that doctors assess patients to determine their BMI. If they're obese, they should make weight loss counseling part of their talks.

Hennings, for her part, believes we'd all be better off if we threw our TVs out the window, or at least scaled back on the couch-surfing. "I know plenty of people who see nothing wrong with coming home from work at a desk job and going straight to the couch where they sit until it's time for bed," she says. "I think there would be fewer overweight people out there if they would just turn off their televisions and find something else to do."

-- Paige Bierma is a health and medical writer who has contributed to Hippocrates, Safety + Health magazine, and Vibe.

References

First published June 12, 2002
Last updated January 23, 2008
Copyright © 2002 Consumer Health Interactive