P - Investigating the Time Use Patterns of Obese Americans

JUNE 2012 • VOLUME 10, ISSUE 2 • DIET & HEALTH • FINDINGS ARTICLE

Investigating the Time Use Patterns of Obese Americans
Obesity is the most common food
and nutrition-related health problem in the
United States—a complex problem with
no single cause or solution. Food choices,
physical activity levels, metabolism, and
genetics are among the many factors that
can influence a person’s weight. How a
person allocates his or her time each day
may also have an impact. ERS researchers
used data from the Eating & Health
Module of the American Time Use Survey
to analyze associations between time spent
on various activities and body mass index
(BMI—a measure of weight adjusted for
height). Although these analyses are associations only and do not necessarily indicate causality, they provide insight into
differences in behavior among people of
different weight categories.
Survey data on the time spent by
Americans age 20 and older on 24 major

activity categories reveal that the biggest
differences
between
normal-weight
people and obese people were in time
spent watching television, participating in
sports and exercise, and engaging in paid
work. Those who were normal weight
spent about 2.45 hours watching TV on
an average day during 2006-08, those who
were overweight spent 2.7 hours, and those
who were obese spent 3.1 hours. Normalweight individuals spent 18 minutes
per day engaged in sports and exercise,
whereas those who were obese spent 12
minutes per day on average.
Normal-weight individuals spent an
average of 3.6 hours engaged in paid work
per day during 2006-08. While this duration may seem short, it reflects an average
calculated for the full 7-day week (that
often includes 2 nonwork days) using
survey responses from individuals who are

Obese Americans watched 37 minutes more television on an average
day in 2006-08 than normal-weight Americans
Minutes
200
160

184
147

164

120
80

Karen S. Hamrick,
khamrick@ers.usda.gov

40
0

employed as well as those not employed.
Overweight individuals spent an average of
3.9 hours per day on paid work, and obese
individuals spent 3.7 hours. Because overweight and obese individuals spend more
time in paid work than normal-weight individuals, policies and programs to combat
obesity may need to consider that those
individuals have less free time available
for weight-reducing efforts.
Data on time spent eating and drinking
show mixed results. Normal-weight people
spent 6 minutes more in primary eating
and drinking than obese individuals and 7
minutes more in secondary eating, but they
spent 4 minutes less in secondary drinking.
Survey respondents identified primary
eating and drinking as the main activity,
while secondary eating and drinking
occurred when they were doing something
else, such as watching television, engaging
in paid work, or getting dressed for the day.
Further investigation found that it
is not the absolute amount of time spent
eating and drinking that is associated
with BMI but the relative time spent in
primary and secondary eating. Normalweight and overweight individuals spent
relatively more time in primary eating and
drinking than in secondary, whereas obese
individuals spent relatively more time in
secondary eating and drinking.

Normal weight
18.5 ≤ BMI < 25

Overweight
25 ≤ BMI < 30

Obese
BMI ≥ 30

BMI = Body Mass Index.
Source: USDA, Economic Research Service using data from 2006-08 Bureau of Labor
Statistics American Time Use Survey and ERS Eating & Health Module data.

This finding is drawn from . . .
How Much Time Do Americans Spend on Food?
by Karen S. Hamrick, Margaret Andrews, Joanne
Guthrie, David Hopkins, and Ket McClelland,
EIB-86, USDA, Economic Research Service,
November 2011, available at: www.ers.usda.gov/
publications/eib86/

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Investigating the Time Use Patterns of Obese Americans / Amber Waves / June 2012
www.ers.usda.gov/amberwaves • Economic Research Service/USDA