Exercise is one of the most important factors in a person's life. Physical activity, or lack thereof, can enable a person to live a healthy lifestyle or cause diabetes. The benefits of exercise are countless. Positive health outcomes, improved attitude, even better academic performance are all factors that make not exercising inexcusable. Simply not using a person's body is harmful. Not being active causes a person's muscles to become weak and in poor condition. The efficiency of a person's heart and lungs will decrease. A person's joints will become stiff and may be easily injured. Inactivity can pose as many health risks as smoking. Additionally, children have become extremely lazy with all the entertainment available these days. Most Americans watch three and a half hours of television every day. At sixty-five, more than nine years will have been spent in front of a screen. More than a third of children aged four to nineteen eat fast food every day and fifteen percent of this age group are obese. It is particularly important to prevent children and adolescents from becoming obese. According to “Obesity and Overweight for Professionals: Data and Statistics,” eighty percent of obese children become obese adults. In the United States, the number of overweight children has doubled since the 1980s. People began resorting to diets without success, and every day thousands of adolescents become bulimic or anorexic in order to lose weight. Thirty-four to thirty-seven percent of American adults are obese. This phenomenon has increased considerably over the last twenty years (“obesity”). The simple answer to this problem is to start exercising. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services says children and adolescents need additional...... middle of paper ...... physical activity for families and children. " National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute. Web. April 24, 2011. .Llewellyn, Claire. Exercise London: QED, 2006. Print. "Mayo Clinic". Web. April 27, 2011. "Obesity and overweight for professionals: data and statistics | DNPAO | CDC." Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Web. April 24, 2011. .Payment, Simone. What happens to your body when you run. New York, NY: Rosen Central, 2010. Print.The World Book Encyclopedia. Chicago: World Book, 2001. Print. “What is Basal Metabolic Rate?” Personal Trainer Cindy Brotherston for Fitness, Weight Loss and Nutrition Web April 24... 2011. .