Only about 5% of American adults do some type of vigorous physical activity on any given day, according to the results of a new study. Researchers analyzed 2003-2008 data from nearly 80,000 participants, aged 20 and older, in the American Time Use Survey, a national telephone-based poll that asked people what they did in the preceding 24 hours. 

Most respondents reported sedentary activities such as eating and drinking (95.6%) and watching television/movies (80.1%), or light activities such as washing, dressing and grooming (78.9%), and driving a car, truck or motorcycle (71.4%).

The most frequently reported moderate activities were food and drink preparation (25.7%) and lawn, garden and houseplant care (10.6%), lead investigator Catrine Tudor-Locke, director of the Walking Behavior Laboratory at Pennington Biomedical Research Center in Baton Rouge, and colleagues found. 

Only 5% of respondents reported vigorous physical activities, including using cardiovascular exercise equipment (2.2%) and running (1.1%). Read more in APP.