Minneapolis-St. Paul, Minnesota, is the fittest urban area in the United States, followed by Washington, D.C., and Boston. The ranking, done by the American College of Sports Medicine, considers a city's smoking rate, the percentage of regular exercisers, chronic health concerns and even the amount of farmer's markets that a city has. The cities that scored the lowest on the ranking were Oklahoma City, Louisville and Memphis.
More facts about fitness in America:
- Fitter cities tend to be more affluent and better educated, but contrary to popular belief, there is no distinctive correlation between a warm average city temperature and its fitness. Sunny Los Angeles, although it stereotypically is full of fit people, actually ranks 41st out of the 50 metro areas ranked.
- In terms of states, Colorado is the only state with an obesity rate of less than 20 percent. West Virginia is the state with the highest obesity rate — about 35 percent. In 38 of the 50 states, more than one-fourth of the people are considered obese.
- People in Northeastern and Western states tend to have the lowest obesity rates.
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More Info: www.acsm.org
Discussion Comments
When the American College of Sports Medicine takes obesity into consideration, I like how it uses the farmer's market as a factor. After all, those places tend to have fresh ingredients, and lots of healthy vegetables. Not to mention that this is a route that one should go if they're trying to stay fit.
The first bullet point really makes me wonder. Is there a reason why fit cities are more educated than those that are unfit? It's just my guess, but I'm assuming that those who stay in shape have a higher brain capacity and are able to focus more than those who are obese.
This article really shows that it's not always good to generalize. In fact, have you noticed that many people tend to associate America with obesity? While it's certainly true to an extent, it's not always the case, as we see here. Also, while the article doesn't bring this up, a lot of obesity relates to issues with fast food and lack of exercise. If we were more attentive, there would be less of a problem. On the other hand, whether one is fit or not, I do think it's good to inform others about the obesity epidemic, especially the children who are still growing.
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