--- title: New Study Shows Most American Teenagers Are Unfit description: A new study by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention shows that over half of American kids aged 12 to 15 are physically unfit canonical: https://time.com/125473/teenagers-fitness/ author: Barbara Tasch article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2014-05-28T17:32:21.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-21T08:05:13.581Z article:section: Health og:title: America's teenagers are out of shape og:description: A new study by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention shows that over half of American kids aged 12 to 15 are physically unfit og:url: https://time.com/125473/teenagers-fitness/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: TIME og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: America's teenagers are out of shape twitter:description: A new study by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention shows that over half of American kids aged 12 to 15 are physically unfit twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production --- # America's Teens Are Out of Shape > Sponsored content. 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Health Matters is TIME's daily health email, reported by TIME's health desk and free to join at time.com/newsletters. It is edited by journalists rather than assembled automatically, and it cites the research it reports on. #### Is Health Matters free? Yes. Health Matters is a free daily newsletter from TIME, available at time.com/newsletters. #### Who reads TIME's Health Matters newsletter? Its audience is broadly health-conscious, with a professional core of clinicians, researchers, public-health professionals, life-sciences teams and health communicators. by [Barbara Tasch](https://time.com/author/barbara-tasch/) ## Barbara Tasch May 28, 2014 5:32 PM UTC by [Barbara Tasch](https://time.com/author/barbara-tasch/) ## Barbara Tasch May 28, 2014 5:32 PM UTC More than half of U.S. adolescents ages 12-15 are [physically unfit](http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/databriefs/db153.pdf), according to a new report. The study by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found that in 2012, only about 42% of American youths had adequate levels of cardiorespiratory fitness, a 10% drop compared to 2000\. The study also found that the percentage of young people who had adequate levels of cardiorespiratory fitness decreases as their weight increases. More than 600 teenagers were tested for the study. Their fitness was measured in a treadmill test, during which researchers tested how well their hearts and lungs could move blood to supply muscles. The report found no disparities in cardiorespiratory fitness levels according to to race or family income. It did show a clear difference between boys and girls, with just over half of boys deemed fit but only a third of girls. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/125473/teenagers-fitness/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/125473/teenagers-fitness/"},"headline":"America's Teens Are Out of Shape","datePublished":"2014-05-28T17:32:21.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-21T08:05:13.581Z","description":"The numbers are in: Over half of American teenagers ages 12 to 15 are physically unfit","url":"https://time.com/125473/teenagers-fitness/","keywords":["Exercise & Fitness","physical activity"],"thumbnailUrl":"","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Barbara Tasch","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/barbara-tasch/"}],"articleSection":"Health","image":[],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/health/","name":"Health"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/exercisefitness/","name":"Exercise & Fitness"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/125473/teenagers-fitness/","name":"America's Teens Are Out of Shape"}}]}] ```