Posted January 22nd, 2009
The February issue of Men’s Fitness features the magazine’s 11th annual survey of the “Fittest and Fattest Cities in America.” At the top of the fit list is Salt Lake City followed by Colorado Springs; Minneapolis, Denver and Albuquerque.
Miami finished at the bottom, much to the surprise of the report’s authors, considering the city’s reputation as a mecca for the tanned and tone. For the survey, the magazine analyzed “reams of data” on the 50 most populated areas in the nation. Men’s Fitness teamed with a research firm to review the data and create its fittest and fattest lists.
In the latest edition of ACSM’s American Fitness Index (AFI) data report, Salt Lake City was not ranked due to incomplete data, but Minneapolis/St. Paul and Denver finished in AFI’s top 5. Washington D.C. Metro finished with the highest AFI score while ranking 18th fittest according to Men’s Fitness. Miami ranked 31st in the AFI report. Colorado Springs and Albuquerque were not included in AFI’s report since neither city is included in the Top 50 metropolitan statistical areas (MSAs) according to the U.S. Census.
Posted January 21st, 2009
The American College of Sports Medicine (ACSM) has released a full version of the ACSM American Fitness Index™ (AFI) report by expanding the list from 16 populous metropolitan areas to the Top 50 metropolitan areas based on population.
The data report, “Health and Community Fitness Status of 50 Most Populous Metropolitan Areas,” is a snapshot of the state of health and fitness in America’s 50 most populous metropolitan areas.
ACSM piloted the AFI program in 2008 in partnership with the WellPoint Foundation including the release of the inaugural data report on May 29, 2008. Based on feedback during the pilot stage and other lessons learned, the latest AFI data report has been slightly retooled to include additional data components, a revamped scoring system and, as mentioned, expanding AFI to 50 metro areas.
Washington D.C. Metro finished ahead of newly included Minneapolis/St. Paul and the Denver area in this version of the report. San Francisco, which finished at the top of the pilot rankings, moved to the fourth spot. Note: The majority of the data in the full version is the same data used in the pilot report.
Click here to download the report and review the complete rankings.
