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Less Obesity for Millennials - 9/27/16

Have you noticed that millennials tend to dress differently than the rest of us?  When many of us were growing up, we would wear one set of clothes for work or school, and then change into exercise gear at the gym.  Millennials seem to wear gym clothes all the time whether in the form of running tights or yoga pants.  They have embraced what’s called athleisure fashion. 

This trend has helped to stoke the fortunes of companies like Lululemon and Under Armour among others.  Data indicate that young people are not simply wearing exercise clothes, they are actually exercising.  While obesity in America climbed between two thousand and eight and two thousand and fifteen, it’s declining among nineteen to thirty five years olds according to Gallup. 

As reported by Bloomberg, the nineteen to thirty five age group experienced a nearly one percent decline in obesity in recent years even as adults in other generations collectively experienced a four percent increase.  Falling obesity among young people has major economic implications.  Obesity adds more than one hundred and forty billion dollars to medical costs in the U.S. each year.  Falling obesity among the young suggests that at some point, those costs will begin to fall.    

Anirban Basu, Chariman Chief Executive Officer of Sage Policy Group (SPG), is one of the Mid-Atlantic region's leading economic consultants. Prior to founding SPG he was Chairman and CEO of Optimal Solutions Group, a company he co-founded and which continues to operate. Anirban has also served as Director of Applied Economics and Senior Economist for RESI, where he used his extensive knowledge of the Mid-Atlantic region to support numerous clients in their strategic decision-making processes. Clients have included the Maryland Department of Transportation, St. Paul Companies, Baltimore Symphony Orchestra Players Committee and the Martin O'Malley mayoral campaign.