The Fitness Industry Paradox: 70 Million Gym Members, 42% Obesity

This graph exposes capitalism's cruelest joke: as gym memberships exploded from 1 million to 70 million Americans, obesity rates more than tripled from 13% to 42%. We've built a massive industry around body transformation while bodies have grown larger than ever. The solution has become synchronized with the problem it claims to solve.

The fitness industry discovered its most profitable model: selling hope, not results. Gyms depend on members who pay but don't attend. January rushes fund entire years. The industry profits from failure – if people actually got fit, they'd stop paying. So it creates complexity, intimidation, and shame cycles that ensure permanent customers, not transformed bodies. Seventy million memberships, 42% obesity – the math reveals the scam.