November 24, 2016
Americans aren't quite as keen on hitting the gym and shedding some pounds now as they were a decade ago, according to one new study.
Though, the desire to lose weight in general still sits above where it was in the 1950s.
The new poll, released by Gallup Tuesday, found that an average of 53 percent of Americans said that they wanted to lose weight between 2010-16, falling from the 59 percent average between 2000-09.
In the 1950s, about 35 percent of Americans expressed a desire to lose weight.
The study also found that fewer Americans felt that they were overweight than in the 1990s. The gap between men and women who express desire in losing weight has narrowed in the last 60 years, too, according to Gallup.
Sixty percent of women and 46 percent of men said they wanted to lose a few pounds, whereas twice as many women as men had the same desire in the 50s.
Thirty-seven percent of people also said that they consider themselves as overweight, down four percentage points since the 2000s and seven percentage points since the 1990s.
While Gallup said that the percentage changes may be due to a shifting perception of weight, Americans have also developed a different idea of their ideal body weight. In the 90s, Americans wanted to weigh 153 pounds and then 158 pounds in the 2000s. Now, 161 pounds is the ideal body weight for Americans, Gallup found.
At the same time, actual body weight has also risen. In the 1990s, Americans weighed 166 pounds which then moved upward to 174 pounds in the early 2000s and now to 176 pounds.
Gallup interviewed more than 1,000 adults across the nation between Nov. 9-13 to get the results.
