Atlanta Ranked Most Frugal City in U.S (unemployed, buying)

[neil0311]

Originally Posted by johnatl

Most of the "large" people I know personally are Northeastern transplants.

Of course...just like all the bad drivers, etc.

All the native southerners, eating biscuits and gravy with greasy sausages for breakfast and fried whatever for lunch and dinner are all skinny. Got it.

[JPD]

Originally Posted by waronxmas

Atlanta's the 16th fittest city in the country, 1st in the South.

ACSM | America's 50 Largest Metro Areas Get Their Annual Physical (http://www.acsm.org/AM/Template.cfm?Section=Media&TEMPLATE=/CM/ContentDisplay.cfm&CONTENTID=14704 - broken link)

I won't dig up the posts before, but I'm not sure which city of Atlanta you are talking about. People (particularly in the 30s and younger) are pretty fit around here. Most gyms are packed. During the warmer months the sidewalks have tons of joggers on them. I was in Piedmont Park yesterday and there were probably less loungers than there were people biking, running, roller skating, playing football, etc.

I had no idea there was more than one City of Atlanta in this state.

Go downtown sometime, or spend five minutes standing at the front door of any office tower during the lunch hour. You'll see a plenty of fatties.

Yeah, obviously active people and young urbanites tend to stay fit, and you're guaranteed to see a lot of active people near parks and in gyms, but guess what? They're FAR outnumbered by people who aren't active, aren't at the park and aren't at the gym.

[waronxmas]

Originally Posted by JPD

I had no idea there was more than one City of Atlanta in this state.

Go downtown sometime, or spend five minutes standing at the front door of any office tower during the lunch hour. You'll see a plenty of fatties.

Yeah, obviously active people and young urbanites tend to stay fit, and you're guaranteed to see a lot of active people near parks and in gyms, but guess what? They're FAR outnumbered by people who aren't active, aren't at the park and aren't at the gym.

I really disagree about that in Intown. The data backs up that assertion.

I'm not trying to say that there are no obese people or even a large number of obese people (obesity is very serious problem in our society no matter where you are), but I just don't agree that it is the norm.

Also, using the example that you did, who's to say that hypothetical obese person you see walking out of a Downtown office isn't some suburbanite who drives 30 miles a day to and from work and subsists totally on a diet of Krispy Kremes and McDonalds?

[JPD]

Originally Posted by waronxmas

I really disagree about that in Intown. The data backs up that assertion.

I'm not trying to say that there are no obese people or even a large number of obese people (obesity is very serious problem in our society no matter where you are), but I just don't agree that it is the norm.

Also, using the example that you did, who's to say that hypothetical obese person you see walking out of a Downtown office isn't some suburbanite who drives 30 miles a day to and from work and subsists totally on a diet of Krispy Kremes and McDonalds?

Well, I know for a fact that some of them are suburbanites with terrible eating habits and sedentary lifestyles. I also know for a fact that some of them are City of Atlanta residents with terrible eating habits and sedentary lifestyles. However, virtually all of them are residents of the Metro Atlanta area. When people say Atlanta, they generally mean Metro Atlanta Area and not City of Atlanta. This forum proves that.

[tallydude02]

Originally Posted by neil0311

I'd have to review the stats and how they're collected, but it's VERY hard to believe that there is only 1% to 3% difference in obesity between Maine/New Hampshire and Georgia.

I am not a resident of Georgia but I saw this topic.

Here is the adult overweright/obese % by state.

Really all of the states are at an unacceptable level.

GA ties with MN, is slightly higher than ME, a little higher than NH. Not much of a difference.

Adult Overweight/Obesity Rate - Kaiser State Health Facts

Adult Overweight/Obesity Rate by R/E - Kaiser State Health Facts

When race is taken into account, the % for white Georgians is actually slightly below the national average.

[waronxmas]

Just to bring him/her in to the convo, our resident fraidy cat left me this PM:

Originally Posted by fraidy cat

Not to invoke Godwin's Law or anything, but your mindset is is akin to how the Germans allowed Nazi crimes to go on under their noses. You choose NOT to see the fatties. Atlanta will never improve with this attitude.

A few thoughts:

1. So having a point of view contrary to yours is akin to me having the same sort of ill advised head in the ground mindset that pre-WWII Germans had in regards to Nazism?

2. Obesity is a very real problem in our society no matter what city you are in. I personally struggled with it myself during my teen years until I learned to love running.

3. For many people, their obesity is a consequence of their economics. Extremely poor people can only afford to eat the cheapest foods and the cheapest foods just happen to be the ones that contain the most calories, saturated fats and sugars.

With that in mind:

The fact is that Metro Atlanta, despite the thoughts of some people to the contrary, is in fact one of the fittest Metros in the country. Out of the 50 largest metropolitan areas, we rank #16 whereas a city like Miami (which was getting a pass as a "fit city" earlier in the thread) is 23 spots behind Atlanta at number 39.

This isn't a trivial difference given that our metro and city populations are pretty much identical. If you do math on it, that means that Miamians are far less healthy and active than Atlantans. That may come as a surprise to some, but not to me.

Atlanta has the largest amateur tennis association on the planet. Not just the United States. The PLANET.

We also have one of the largest amateur track clubs in the country with the Atlanta Track Club's 10,000+ members. Not to mention the second largest 10k on the planet each year.

I say all this to be contrary to the idea that Atlanta has an exceptional problem with obesity. While obesity is a problem here, we are in fact exceptional at being fit that can be pointed to with hard numbers.

By all means feel free to disagree with my assertion, but do so with data that backs you up instead of calling people "fatties" or "nazis".

[Lagwagon113]

Originally Posted by neil0311

Of course...just like all the bad drivers, etc.

All the native southerners, eating biscuits and gravy with greasy sausages for breakfast and fried whatever for lunch and dinner are all skinny. Got it.

Way to stereotype. Do you know people who eat biscuits, gravy and sausage for breakfast and then fried stuff for lunch and dinner? I personally dont but maybe you do. I dont know.

I would say that many southerners are inactive though. Sure the professionals and educated folks typically eat well and exercise but im talking about the avg joe here. Plus many times it is encouraged to eat more. Ive had relatives at family gatherings constantly try to feed me as much food as possible. Especially when i was younger people thought i didnt "have enough meat on my bones".

[waronxmas]

Originally Posted by JPD

Well, I know for a fact that some of them are suburbanites with terrible eating habits and sedentary lifestyles. I also know for a fact that some of them are City of Atlanta residents with terrible eating habits and sedentary lifestyles. However, virtually all of them are residents of the Metro Atlanta area. When people say Atlanta, they generally mean Metro Atlanta Area and not City of Atlanta. This forum proves that.

Yes, but you are really splitting hairs here.

Is it hard to find a morbidly obese person on the street here? Not at all.

However the data supports the fact that Atlantans in general are healthier than a lot of metros, so to say Atlantans are abnormally affected by obesity that is simply not true.

[JPD]

Originally Posted by waronxmas

Yes, but you are really splitting hairs here.

Is it hard to find a morbidly obese person on the street here? Not at all.

However the data supports the fact that Atlantans in general are healthier than a lot of metros, so to say Atlantans are abnormally affected by obesity that is simply not true.

I don't think I said that we were abnormally affected by it.

Since this thread is now way off topic ( I take the blame for that), I'll just say that I stand my by original statement and leave it at that:

Most people I know in Atlanta are incapable of walking up more than one flight of stairs without needing to call an ambulance, so I don't know about the living off the land thing.

[waronxmas]

Originally Posted by JPD

I don't think I said that we were abnormally affected by it.

Since this thread is now way off topic ( I take the blame for that), I'll just say that I stand my by original statement and leave it at that:

Most people I know in Atlanta are incapable of walking up more than one flight of stairs without needing to call an ambulance, so I don't know about the living off the land thing.

You are free to do so, but I stand my statement of that position, quite frankly, being out to lunch until you produce data to suggest otherwise.

No hard feelings.

Moving along now. What was the OP about?