Boston Rises to the Fittest Top 10

When Bostonist received an e-mail notifying us that the results were in, we were expecting news about a new M&M color being introduced. It turns out the e-mail was referring to the latest survey from Men's Fitness magazine, which once again ranked the Fittest/Fattest Cities in the U.S. While Bostonist’s own fitness routine has dropped off in the last few months, it seems that our city has actually improved in health, moving from the 11th Fittest City in 2005 to the 10th Fittest City in 2006. The Fittest City overall is Baltimore, which was ranked 25th in 2005, while Chicago takes the Fattest City award (but that authentic deep dish pizza is definitely worth it). So, how did little ol' Boston get to the number 10 spot? Well, Men's Fitness created a report card of sorts to see how all the cities stacked up in 5 areas. Here is how we did:

Healthy Habits
Fitness Centers/Sporting Goods Stores F+
Nutrition C+
Exercise/Sports Participation B-

Risk Factors
Alcohol F
TV Watching D
Overweight/Sedentary A-
Junk Food B+

Environment
Air A
Climate C
Geography A-

Urban Attributes
Commute C
Parks/Open Space C
Recreation Facilities C-
Health Care B+

Motivation & Leadership
Motivation B
Mayor & City Initiatives A-
State Obesity Legislation A

It seems that Men's Fitness was quite impressed with the governmental involvement in our health, and we also keep our hands out of the Oreos, which means our obesity level is lower too. Our health care and air aren’t too shabby either. Unfortunately, it looks like we make up for it with way too much alcohol and television watching. We also excelled at flunking with the F+ in sporting good stores and gyms. (It does seem like City Sports and B.S.C. are taking over Boston.)

And DCist, do we need to have a talk? (According to the survey: “Bostoners quaff more alcohol than average, but they're far from Washington, D.C., where alcohol consumption per person is the highest.”) But we have to ask, what else is Bostonist going to do with our time if we decrease the booze and reality TV? It’s the dead of January!

Photo courtesy of flickr.com/dlcampos