America is Lazy and Therefore Fat

If you have any doubt as to how lazy American are, just go to any Wal-Mart or supermarket. Count the number of shopping carts that are left out to aimlessly wander the parking lot, occupy prime parking spots, and ding innocent cars.

How much effort does it really take to return a shopping cart? Most supermarkets have cart corrals spread throughout the parking lot for your convenience. The following calculations are being done to demonstrate how lazy Americans are.

Lets say that the average person has to walk 25 steps each way to return the cart.
- That is a total of 50 steps.
- The average person takes 2000 steps in 1 mile.
- In 1 mile the average person burns approximately 110 calories.
- To burn 1 calorie you have to take about 18 steps
= To return the shopping cart you just burned about 3 calories. Now I understand why people find it too exhausting to return a shopping cart. If you return 17 more shopping carts you'll finally burn off that 1 Oreo you had for lunch.

Now some people will say that they don't have enough time to return the cart. Understandable, right?

Lets say that it takes you were walking 3 mph for the 50 steps it will take you to return the cart.
- 3 mph is a 20 minute mile.
- The average person takes 2000 steps in 1 mile.
- That is 100 steps per minute.
- You took 50 steps.
= To return the shopping cart it took you 30 seconds.

- The average person in the USA watches approximately 4.5 hours of TV a day.
- There are 16 minutes of commercials per hour of American TV.
= The average person in the USA watches 72 minutes of commercials per day.

That means you could return 144 shopping carts during the time you spend watching TV commercials per day.

So please spare the 3 calories and the 30 seconds to return your shopping cart. The supermarket employees will appreciate it.