The other thing about “exercise” is that a lot of things should be considered exercise but are not reported. For instance, I spent the weekend changing my TV system around. That doesn’t sound difficult, but my TV and speakers are on the opposite wall from my equipment and I use an RF remote to access the equipment, which is in a cabinet (you don’t see the equipment). My old speakers had died, and I wanted to use my newer speakers and add in a center channel. I had to deconstruct the TV and speaker system, put the speakers into boxes, carry them into the basement. I had to run another speaker wire from one side of the room to the other through the basement, cut a hole in the wall and install a box for the speaker wire. On the other side, I ran two 20amp outlets, etc. I was up and down the stairs into the basement or to the second floor more times than I could count. I was on ladders drilling through bottom plates, on the floor cutting holes in drywall, on ladders running cable through joists, etc. It took both weekend days. This is Monday, and I’m still freaking exhausted. Yet that would never count as “exercise”.
I have another project where I’m wrapping the basement walls in rigid foam insulation. That also is incredibly difficult physically, yet it would never be recorded as “exercise”.
So, their very premise that “Americans don’t exercise” under counts the many things we do that aren’t technically some box called “exercise”.