We're No. 2!

[SpectralMourning]

We did it again, folks. We made the top 2! Now we're going to need to work a bit harder to get that no. 1 spot next year, but I think we can really do it.
Top 25 fittest and fattest cities in the U.S. - Healthy Living on Shine

[oknacreous]

What? Mick's "OKCmillion" publicity stunt didn't magically help us all lose weight? You could knock me over with a feather.

Over the last few years I've lost about 85 lbs with a lot of hard work, and I'm here to tell you that it's really hard to find high-quality, fresh, healthy food around here. On the other hand I see another chain rib joint has opened...

[mecarr]

Peeps here like their fried food and don't like to walk more than 15 yards at a time.

[oneforone]

Please.... OKC has just as many fat people as any other city in the US. These surveys are nothing more than tools to help push goods and services to the public, government and private sector.

[Bostonfan]

We did it again, folks. We made the top 2! Now we're going to need to work a bit harder to get that no. 1 spot next year, but I think we can really do it.
Top 25 fittest and fattest cities in the U.S. - Healthy Living on Shine

No shock here. If you have been out and about you'd see lazy slobs everywhere. Even though we all know it's important to eat right, it basically comes down to being LAZY. It takes a little effort away from the tv, video games, computer, kitchen, etc. Oh, but you always here, "I'm just too busy to eat right or to exercise". But hey, I bet we are #1 in the country when it comes to stomach staple surgery..

[oknacreous]

Please.... OKC has just as many fat people as any other city in the US. These surveys are nothing more than tools to help push goods and services to the public, government and private sector.

Actually, if you read the Men's Fitness report...

According to the CDC, 29 percent of residents in the Oklahoma City area are clinically obese. The national average is 25.19 percent.

2009 Fattest Cities: #2 Oklahoma City, OK - Men's Fitness

[Pete]

Also from Men's Fitness:

Even recreational walking - about the easiest fitness activity anywhere - can't attract participants in Oklahoma City, where people are 14 percent less likely than average to go for a walk, the 4th lowest rate of any city in our survey.

This is the direct result of ridiculous sprawl, as even if you did want to walk somewhere where the heck would you go in most areas?

Plus, there are very few sidewalks and running/walking paths.

These are areas where the city could improve greatly through better planning and leadership.

[MadMonk]

Well one thing we're #1 at here - pitiable self loathing.

[Kerry]

Another piece of crap opinion being passed off as science. Here are the criteria used:

Fitness Centers & Sport Stores
Nutrition
Sports Participation
TV Viewing
Overweight/Sedentary
Junk Food
Air Quality
Geography
Commute
Parks & Open Space
City Rec Facilities
Access to Healthcare
Motivation
Mayor & City Initiatives
State Obesity Initiatives

Only one of these items is even justified in being in this survey and it is the one actually called Overweight/Sedentary. OKC still recieved an F in that but atleast it was an actual count related to the title of the study. In fact, it should have been the only criteria used. I also noticed OKC got an A- for Access to Healthcare but didn't we just get a low rating in healthcare last year from some other researcher? Did anyone else notice how many of the categories required government spending to raise the score?

Here is one of my favorites from the study:

Residents of Oklahoma City are 86 percent less likely than average to go snowboarding - the 3rd lowest rate in our survey. Even Miami residents snowboard more.

[BPD]

Come on folks, lets not allow ourselves to be second in anything. Chow down!

[okclee]

Kerry, why do you always want to discount any negative poll that has Okc as an unhealthy or fat city??

Just curious?

[ddavidson8]

One thing I noticed when I moved to Houston (a very fat city) is the abundance of national health club chains. There are almost none in OKC. You'll find almost as many 24 Hour Fitness, LA Fitness and Bally's as you will Walgreens.

[oneforone]

Honestly, I could really careless about what people think of OKC.

The only people who care are the people who desperately want OKC to be liked by the people who live on the east and west coast.

It is kind of like the kids we all new in high school who would sell their soul and shoot their parents if it meant they got to be a part of the in crowd.

[Chicken In The Rough]

As Kerry pointed out, the methodology of these "studies" is usually dubious at best. I have not read this report, and I suspect none of the media who braodcast it nationwide have read it either. Who conducted the study? Who and how many did they question? Who paid for the study? Where can I read a list of questions? How did they quantify fat people? Did they come and count?

I try not to care about these types of reports. However, they are picked up and reported by the national media. I was in Grand Forks, ND yesterday and saw this on the local news. I think the media have the duty to report the news, but not a bogus story designed to promote an agenda.

[Bostonfan]

Or maybe, just maybe the study is correct. Yea, this study might not be legit, but at the same time, we (OKC) are fat enough to be mentioned as #2. Whether people want to believe it or not, we are fat and lazy. There are many people around here who simply don't care about their health. They would rather smoke a pack a day instead of running a mile a day. Instead of eating light and healthy, they would rather go to the all you can eat places and not get cheated.

We can try to smooth it over by saying this study is flawed, there aren't many gyms in the metro, there aren't any parks to go to, etc.... but people can build the gyms and the city can build more parks, but alot of people won't get off their lazy, fat butt.... (unless it's to go eat)

[Jesseda]

does anyone else fell like chinese food right now or is it just me?

[mecarr]

Honestly, I could really careless about what people think of OKC.

The only people who care are the people who desperately want OKC to be liked by the people who live on the east and west coast.

It is kind of like the kids we all new in high school who would sell their soul and shoot their parents if it meant they got to be a part of the in crowd.

Ridiculous. The only people who care are people on the coasts? People in OKC hopefully care more about OKC than people who live on the coasts. Just because we live in the "heartland" does not mean we are immune from justified criticism.

[oknacreous]

The main purpose of a study like this is to sell magazines and fill airtime on the news. Plus people have this bizarre obsession with top 10/bottom 10 lists. And of course the methods used by Men's Fitness aren't the best, but it's not exactly a scientific journal. The CDC obesity stat is the one I quoted because it's the best measure.

The other measures they use such as fast food joints and gym availability are reasonable secondary measures based on the law of supply and demand. That is, there wouldn't be such a high number of fast food joints per capita in OKC if the local demand wasn't so high. There would be more gyms opening up if demand was higher.

Having had the opportunity to travel to a wide variety of cities in the US and abroad as part of my job (and for fun), I think OKC is definitely fatter and lazier than the average US city. But other cities are just as bad from what I've observed, such as Miami, New Orleans, Memphis, Jackson MS, and Tulsa. The sad thing is that when I travel abroad it is shocking how much better shape people are in than just about ANY place in the United States. I think all this boils down to the US culture of using the car as the primary mode of transportation and making it extremely difficult for people to walk or bicycle to their destination. In this regard OKC is one of the worst cities in the world I've ever seen.

[OKCMallen]

Well one thing we're #1 at here - pitiable self loathing.

Someday I dream of an OKC where people aren't constantly self-critical and are simply happy to be from OKC instead of flexing an inferiority complex.

[bombermwc]

Spwarl - are you freaking kidding me? It doesn't have anything to do with that...at all. A person is no more likely to get off their couch if they live urban or suburban. You do find urbanits walking that can't afford a car, but they aren't going to be walking to Wal Mart.

OKC has the higest number of fast food places per person of anywhere in the U.S. Plus we're lazy as anything. People drive their car from one end of the mall to the other...seriously. And they even do that at strip malls. You tell me how sprawl has anything to do with a person being a fat lazy slob. It's called stop eating crap and eat healthy food and get off the couch and do some exercise.

As far as diet, it's SOOOOO easy to correct it. You don't have to go all Biggest Loser or anything either.

#1 - stop eating anything fried, switch to broiled or baked.
#2 - replace your side dishes with vegetables. No more rice mixes with all that salt and fat. Just use normal veggies like carrots, peas, green beans. But DO NOT pile mounds of butter and salt on them. Lightly season with some salt/pepper and a more healthy butter like Brummel and Brown or something.
#3 - Stop the snacking! If you're going to snack between meals, make it a healthy one. Again with the veggies! Dip some carrots in some humus! No Ranch Dressing!
#4 - Seriously, take a walk. How hard is it to walk around your neighborhood for 30 minutes a day? Build that up to a little jog and you'll burn WAY more calories.
#5 - Lay off the bread. Those heavy carbs will do you in. Moderation is key....and don't pile on the butter on the roll and corn bread either. It's like getting the diet coke with the big mac.

[BDP]

OKC has just as many fat people as any other city in the US.

I don't know about this.

I can't vouch for the scientific validity of any of these studies, but to know that there is some truth to them all you have to do is get out a bit. Go to bricktown during dinner hours or go to a Thunder game or to a movie at Quail Springs. I know it's completely anecdotal, but sometimes it is hard to look around and not see a lot of fat people. Just to go anywhere in the city where a lot of people are congregating and you will notice a lot of fat people. Even the most common complaint about the Ford Center is seat size, and the arena's seats are at or above the average seat width of active arenas.

It does say something when on more than one occasion I have had out of town guests ask out of the blue if there are a lot of fat people in Oklahoma.

Sure, there are fat people everywhere, but I think it's pretty hard to look around and say it's not worse here than most places. I would actually be more likely to question a survey's validity that didn't come to that conclusion.

However, that does not mean that people here are less happy or less motivated than elsewhere. It just means we are less healthy and I don't see how anyone could argue against that.

[Pete]

This is not anecdotal:

According to the CDC, 29 percent of residents in the Oklahoma City area are clinically obese. The national average is 25.19 percent.

Almost 30% clinically obese! Not, overweight but obese.

We can type on message boards all day long about how other people should eat and live, but the question is what can the community (and it's leaders) do about this?

The only thing that makes sense -- and what most cities do much better -- is to create more parks and running/walking/biking trails and make the developments themselves more compatible with walking.

All that contributes to a culture of being outside and active rather than always being in your car and going through the drive-thru. And if you think people in OKC walk as much as most other cities, you haven't traveled much.

[okclee]

Very well said by the last two posts (BDP & Pete).

I am not sure why many on okctalk and citizens of Okc, get so defensive whenever Okc is listed as a fat city or similar lists in regards to being active. It is almost like many people think this is some sort of conspiracy or a Okc bias by the media because we are a "RED" state or something. Look around, it is not a bias or conspiracy people, Okc is a fat and unhealthy city and it is costing all of us in more ways than one.

Okc is one of the worst pedestrian citizens in comparision to size and population. We have limited sidewalks, limited bike lanes if any, and it is hard to think of an area in Okc that one could actually live, work, shop, etc., without the need of a car.

[OUJAG]

Agree with most of the posts here. I've lived in a number of cities in the U.S. and abroad and people here are less active than I've seen - I moved here from Charlottesville, VA, and you always see people out and about walking, running, biking, etc. Again, there are lots of walking/biking paths in Charlottesville that OKC doesn't offer, but I'm not sure if people would take advantage of them even if we did have them here.

One example is that I work in downtown OKC and live nearby in Heritage Hills. It is just over 1 1/4 miles from my house to my office and I try to walk to/from work when I can - it takes me about 25-30 minutes. The people at my office think I am out of my mind for wasting 30 minutes (1 hour total) of my day walking to/from work, and they aren't afraid to tell me so. These are the same people who spend 45 minutes in their cars commuting from their homes in Edmond and/or Norman. And I'm the crazy one.

[okcpulse]

For crying out loud, this pity crap was posted on another forum, only to see the thread meet its demise.

Mick began his campiagn.. what... a year ago? And for Oklahoma City's population, it is going to take a few years or more to change that kind of statistic. Oklahoma City's trail expansion is well underway.

And OUJAG, you can't tell me that people in OKC are not active when you're fighting for trailspace at Lake Hefner on a warm saturday afternoon. People in OKC are getting on board. It just takes time.

However, there will always be those that will never want to work out. There is nothing you can do about that.