What are the Top U.S. Cities for Fitness? Find Out ...

Access to parks and paths for jogging, walking and biking helped make the Washington, D.C., area the fittest of the 50 largest metropolitan areas in the U.S., according to a study out Tuesday.

The famous Double Cheeseburger from the Working 
Man's Friend, Indianapolis

Meanwhile, the Indianapolis area dropped from 46th in 2014 to become the least fit major metro area this year, according to the eighth annual American Fitness Index from the American College of Sports Medicine and the Anthem Foundation.

The rankings, based on outdoor exercise options and rates of smoking, obesity and diabetes, are designed to be a "call to action" for areas to improve their infrastructures so they promote healthy lifestyles, says Walter Thompson, chair of the AFI advisory board and a professor of kinesiology at Georgia State University.

Doing well in the rankings is increasingly difficult. Public health spending at the federal, state and local levels is below pre-recession levels, the non-profit Trust for America's Health reported last month.

In 2013, spending averaged $239 per person or $75.4 billion compared with $241 per person in 2009. When adjusted for inflation, public health spending was down 10% in those five years.

The index compares the top metro areas against target goals that were calculated using the highest and lowest scores in earlier data. That means for aerobic activity, just 32% of people needed to report meeting the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's guidelines, which call for 2½ hours a week of brisk walking, which can be broken into 10-minute increments.

Read the rest of the story HERE.

If you like what you see, please "Like" us on Facebook either here or here. Please follow us on Twitter here.