Reply #81: So Either Stay In the City or Move Way Far Out?

[AndyTiedye]

when somebody I know moves out to the way-burbs, in a year or two they've invariably gained weight. Why? Too much car time.

If it's far enough out that it has an outdoors worth being out in, then the benefits can outweigh this. But then it's not suburbia either.
Works for me

If you live five minutes from work

or telecommute:-)

you are more likely to exercise

People are more likely to exercise if they have access to strenuous activities that they enjoy.
I don't live so close to work, but I'm 5 minutes (by bike) from the best mountain biking trails in the Bay Area. This has had a very favorable effect on my physical fitness.

and less likely to rely on fast food

To some extent this is a matter of imagination, or lack thereof. When I was working in San Francisco I had several coworkers who nearly always had lunch at Carls Jr. I could never understand this, since San Francisco has a greater variety of restaurants than any place but New York City. To eat mass-produced burgers in such a place seems like a terrible waste. I usually ended up eating lunch with the Indian contingent, who had much more interesting culinary preferences.

than if you spend 2 hours in traffic every day.

Only time I ever had that long a commute every day I was living in the city and commuting out to the outer burbs.

Plus these sprawling "gated communities," a lot of times you have to drive even to the market, they are on the other side of the freeway (talking about some of the "planned communities" I've seen outside of L.A. They're planned to DRIVE...everywhere!"

And sometimes the market that is within walking distance closes down. Even the best-laid plans....

I think city folks and rural people are both more fit than suburbanites

An interesting paradox, since most rural people are not farmers, and some commute even further than the average suburbanite.

One might presume that the city folks might walk to work, though the characteristic city commute exercise is hanging onto a strap on a crowded public conveyance, and many city-dwellers drive, often to jobs out in the suburbs.
Out in the country, one can presume that the farmers get plenty of exercise,
and some of us telecommute or otherwise manage to work at home, so we can avail ourselves of that which caused us to move out into the sticks in the first place.
There are others that spend even more time commuting than the suburbanites do.