Chicago: The land of obese!

A survey names Chicago as the fattest US metropolis and honours Baltimore in the northeast as the fittest.

Windy City waistlines are the widest in America, according to a new survey which names Chicago as the fattest US metropolis and honours Baltimore in the northeast as the fittest.

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The report by Men's Fitness magazine pegged Chicago as number one "Fattest City" ahead of gamblers paradise Las Vegas and, surprisingly, sports obsessed Los Angeles, while the Texan cities of Dallas and Houston rounded out the top five.

According to the magazine, six out of 10 citizens of Chicago are sufficiently overweight to damage their health, and people spend more time stuck in front of the television than any other city in the survey.

Perhaps the weather is to blame: "You have to have some serious chops to hit the jogging circuit when your nose is freezing faster than you can wipe it," the magazine article said.

Baltimore, a gritty industrial city east of Washington, hardly known as a haven for fitness freaks, surprisingly beat out more established healthy destinations Honolulu and Virginia Beach for the tag of Fittest City.

The magazine said Baltimore, famous for crab cakes, has one of the healthiest diets of US cities, with half the number of junk food outlets per capita than other cities on the list.

Over the past year, the people of Baltimore have started to do more exercise and watch less television, in a city which has more than its fair share of parks and enjoys good air quality thanks to its proximity to the eastern seaboard.

But while Baltimorians seem desperate to get outside, the good people of Memphis, Tennessee, seem just the opposite, earning their town the dubious distinction of Laziest City.

"It's one thing for a city to have a relaxed pace," the magazine quipped.

"But what can we say about a place where more than one in five adults admit that they haven't engaged in any form of physical activity -- even vacuuming -- in the last 30 days?"