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People Who Live in Town Slim Down

Jessica Marshall, Discovery News

"People who love to ride bikes and jog are going to move into neighborhoods that allow them to do that," Smith said.

Lawrence Frank of the University of British Columbia has tried to determine whether people living in more walkable neighborhoods weigh less because of the neighborhood itself or because active people choose such neighborhoods.

"The evidence is inconclusive," he told Discovery News. But, he said, "If you are someone who prefers to be in a more walkable environment and you don't live in one, you don't walk as much. The built environment is an enabler."

Smith's team looked at other measures of a neighborhood's walkability such as the population density, how interconnected the streets are, and how many people walk to work.

Combining the measures, they concluded that a hypothetical six-foot, 200-pound man living in the least walkable neighborhood would weigh 10 pounds more than his counterpart in the most walkable neighborhood. A five-foot, five-inch woman at 149 pounds would weigh 6 pounds less in the most walkable neighborhood than in the least walkable neighborhood.

The researchers compiled their results in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine.

"The paper reinforces what we already know with a large sample size," Frank said.

"We know there is an unmet demand for more walkable places," he added.

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