Walk-ability
Posted On August 1, 2008
Older, more feet-friendly neighborhoods can help keep waistlines trim, U.S. researchers report.
“We were excited to find that … living in an older neighborhood and higher proportion of residents who walk to work — both predict lower weight,” said lead researcher Barbara Brown, a professor of family and consumer studies at the University of Utah.
They found that neighborhood type did seem to be correlated to body weight. For example, a man of average size — 6 feet tall weighing 200 pounds — weighed 10 pounds less if he lived in an older, more walkable neighborhood. A woman of average size — 5’5″ tall weighing 149 pounds — was six pounds lighter if she lived in a similar area versus a newer, less pedestrian-friendly locale.
Of course, walkable neighborhoods may select for fitter people (the folks who want to walk will choose to live in places where they can walk). This is a wonky blow off of the data that doesn’t fully explain what’s going on.
If your living space supports activity, you will be more likely to be active, lose weight, and buy smaller pants.
To change our culture in a positive direction, more individuals need to choose neighborhoods with sidewalks, local stores, and bike lanes. And we can ask for the walk-ability of our boroughs and towns to improve as well.
Create demand and the supply will follow.
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About The Author
Will Clower
One Comment
Hi Will – I didn’t realize you had a blogspot blog now! 🙂 (Tina Ferrari here, who used to blog on your site)…
Agree so much with the idea of choosing walkable neighborhoods. Smaller carbon footprint (more walking, less driving = less CO2 emissions) and a bigger positive impact on health.
I’m living in Buenos Aires these days and the sidewalks are constantly filled with people walking, at most hours. And they’re all small. So there ya go. 🙂
I’ll bookmark this blog. Sorry I disappeared – moving hemispheres can be a bit distracting. 😉
tinatangos.com/blog