One good reason to CrossFit

Just in case you needed one more reason to CrossFit, The Economist magazine provided a great argument in graphic form today.

The Economist looks at the percentage of people with Body Mass Index more than 25.

Looking at Body Mass Index (not a great—or even decent—measure, to be sure, but still) for people across the globe, a new study in Lancet indicates, “waistlines are widening everywhere.”

Overweight or obese adults as a percentage of the total population went from 29 percent in 1980 to 37 percent in 2013. While people just about everywhere are getting bigger, the trend is most pronounced in Africa, the Middle East and New Zealand and Australia. 

The World Needs CrossFit

While rich countries are slowing down in weight gain, poorer countries are speeding up. This is especially bad news, because two-thirds of the world’s 2.1 billion overweight adults live in poor countries. Startlingly, 335 million people in China are overweight.  

And it’s not just a factor of China’s huge population (where it’s said that if you’re one in a million, there are more than 1,000 people just like you). Twenty-five percent of adults are now overweight compared with just ten percent in 1980.

And We All Need CrossFit Kids

Fat isn’t just for adults. The Institute of Health Metrics and Evaluation at the University of Washington showed that children are fattening at a faster pace than adults. Last week the World Health Organization (WHO) set up a new commission to curb child obesity. 

The Economist argues, "it will be some time yet before the world reaches peak fat." 

Childhood obesity rates. Not good.

Instead of releasing a bunch of studies, the WHO would have been better off to just open up a bunch of CrossFit Kids gyms. If the gyms are outside of the United States, be sure to invite the boys.

On The Other Hand

Perhaps increased body mass isn’t bad after all. What could be better than this: