I got back into it a couple years ago. I was a big gymgoer in college and through the early part of my 20s. Then kids, entrepreneurship, and overall adulting kept me away for 2+ decades.
I tried running as a more efficient alternative, but hated every second of it. As a kid playing team sports, distance running was always a punishment. It ruined me on it.
Weight training is much more my jam. The results are more immediate, the activities less mind-numbing. It helps that Noelle is into it too. Although I’m expressly forbidden from being at our local gym when she is, she’ll let me join her when we find places to work out when we travel. It’s also on a short list of things we converse about.
In related news, I published a study on our blog this week, the first one I’ve done by myself in years. It’s entitled Is America’s Obesity Epidemic Over?
The blunt answer to that question is ‘no.’ But things are improving. Our data has shown a steady post-2017 decline in Americans who identify as overweight. It’s validated by recent findings from the CDC that, from 2021-2023, the obesity rate in the U.S. fell for the first time in over a decade.
I dug deeper into our database to figure out why. The easy answer would be GLP-1s, but those didn’t really begin proliferating until 2023. I would expect the 2023-2026 period to show those effects much more prominently.
Our collective weight-loss can’t be explained by a widespread change in eating habits either. Increases in healthy food consumption among younger and wealthier Americans have been offset by post-pandemic comfort-eating, price sensitivity, and convenience-seeking among everyone else. The percentage of U.S. adults who identify as healthy eaters has declined since 2020.
What has changed is the frequency with which Americans are exercising, particularly strength training and activities like yoga and Pilates. Conversely, rates of aerobic and cardio exercise fell over the past five years. The correlation in our data between increased strength training and decreased overweightness tracks with growing mounds of medical evidence that the former is better than cardio exercise for sustained weight-loss.
One thing I’ve noticed since my 20-year hiatus is the far higher prevalence of women, like Noelle, lifting weights at the gym. Apropos of that, an amazing person named Anne Marie Chaker, an award-winning Wall St Journal reporter-turned professional bodybuilder, recently published a must-read book called Lift, chronicling how she turned to weight-lifting to overcome post-partum depression, divorce, and tragedy in her life. But the book is way more about shattering centuries of stigma around female body type and physical strength. I won’t mansplain it. Buy the book.
But I can tell you that strength training among U.S. adult women has increased by over 55% since 2015. The trend isn’t just being driven by meat-head dudes in tank tops.
In sum, ladies AND gentlemen, go to the gym. It works.
Here’s what we’re seeing:
Consumer confidence kicked off July on an upswing. After three consecutive downward readings, our Economic Sentiment Index had a notable one-point surge in the first two weeks of Q3. Consumers appear to be growing desensitized to the tariff drama, adopting a wait-and-see mentality. Among the underlying metrics, the big gainers included attitudes toward major purchases and the housing market, as well as improved optimism for the job market. Long-term outlook for the U.S. economy improved modestly, while confidence in people’s personal finances fell.
Meanwhile, our collective emotional well-being fell throughout June. This wouldn’t be quite a big headline if it weren’t highly unusual for our Emotional Well-Being Index to slide during the summer months (pandemic years aside). People are typically boosted by the arrival of sunny weather, vacations, and weekend cookouts. It’s also uncommon for well-being to decline at the same time consumer financial health improved (that’s our other index, not published this week), which it did in June. It’s a reminder that our happiness isn’t always tied to our financial circumstance, but it can be impacted by other things like geopolitical events, environmental disasters, and the like.
On that note, the increasing frequency of extreme weather events is weighing heavily on the minds of potential homebuyers. In our 3 Things to Know this week, we looked at growing concerns among house shoppers as it relates to their ability to obtain homeowners insurance. Two-thirds of likely homebuyers say they’re at least ‘somewhat’ concerned, up from less than half in 2023. It’s yet another factor – along with rising home prices and interest rates – dragging on the market. We also found that a growing number of Americans are turning to AI tools to support their mental and emotional well-being. Finally, we learned that older consumers are much more likely to seek out news content, while younger generations get it more passively. The latter is not a good thing.
Early holiday shopping is happening even earlier. The trend of pull-forward winter holiday buying had been growing – earlier and earlier – for years before reaching a sort of equilibrium in 2024. It seems to have accelerated again this year, owed at least partly to tariff-borne uncertainty. Twenty-one percent of people who do the holiday gift buying in their homes have already started shopping, up from 16% this time last year. Also in this study – another sort of 3 Things to Know heading into the second half of the year: In a sea of pullbacks across the consumer population, spending on health & wellness is the one big category where consumers say they’re spending more than they did last year. Lastly, brands need to tread very lightly when using AI in their advertising and marketing. Consumers are NOT big fans of the idea.
Podcasts are an absolute juggernaut among younger audiences. We shared some of our latest data on the changing media habits of Gen Z adults this week and the results were eye-popping. For starters, a staggering 83% of adults aged 18-29 say they rely on some form of technology as a means of escapism, compared to 62% of Gen Pop. But what really jumped off the screen for me was the continued explosion of podcast listening among Gen Zs. Seventy-five percent of these younger adults now listen to podcasts, up from 70% last year. The most popular platform they use is YouTube, followed by Spotify, with Apple a distant third. Their content has shifted this year as well, away from political and news content (post-election year) and toward more comedy, true crime, and pop culture. Perhaps most importantly for the marketing execs reading this, 61% of Gen Z podcast listeners say podcast advertisements influence their purchase habits.
More awesomeness from the InsightStore:
- Here’s that obesity study I wrote;
- If you missed our webinar this week, here is a recap. We talked Prime Days (lots of new impulse buyers), food and beverage trends, and of course tariffs.
The most popular questions this week:
Do you tend to have more trouble sleeping during the summer months?
How open are you to trying a pickle juice cocktail?
Would you ever consider going to a summer camp for adults?
Do you believe in mediums or psychic phenomena?
Are you currently pursuing any creative endeavors?
Answer Key: Definitely; I love all manner of pickle juice cocktails; I kind of already have one; Not even a little; Yeah, in fact my band is playing tonight.
Hoping you’re well.
JD
PS- I may not write next week. I’ll be visiting my in-laws in Minnesota.
