People out West are the most likely to pay attention to their diet and exercise regime, while people in the South are the least likely.
January is a bumper month for many gyms, as Americans all over the country are fired up by a desire to finally get fit and drop those holiday pounds. Unfortunately, many of these good intentions quickly fall by the wayside. For a persistent few, however, fitness isn't just a new year's resolution but a lifestyle that they live 365 days a year. Nevertheless, the United States is still one of the more obese nations, even though 2013 was the year that Mexico pushed the US into second place to seize the title of the most obese country on earth.
The latest research from YouGov shows that most Americans (55%) keep track of their health and fitness regime. People in the West (65%) are the most likely to do this, while Southerners (51%) are the least likely. Interestingly, despite not paying as much attention to their health, people in the South are marginally more likely to report being in 'excellent' or 'good' health than people in the West, with 77% of Southerners being in good or excellent health compared to 74% of people out West.
Americans overwhelmingly believe in the positive impact that physical fitness can have, not only on your health, but also on your appearance and attractiveness. 69% say that fitness improves health 'a lot', while 47% say that fitness improves your attractiveness 'a lot' too. Only 8% say that it has no impact on attractiveness, and a tiny 1% of Americans say that it has no impact on health.
People out West generally have similar attitudes towards fitness as the rest of the country, but they are the only region of the country where most pople (55%) say that fitness makes 'a lot of difference' to how attractive someone is.
How healthy people feel may be remarkably similar across the country, but states can differ significantly as to how healthy they actually are. Colorado has the lowest obesity rate in the country, with 18.7% of adult Coloradans being classified as obese, while West Virginia, where 33.5% of adults are obese, has the highest rate.
Full poll results can be found here.
Image: Getty Images
