I was inspired to look into this rating system after viewing Supersize Me. This is apparently an evaluation done by Men's Fitness, a health magazine. They base their yearly evaluation on several factors, including the number of fitness clubs, frequency of fruit and vegetable consumption, participation in sports and fitness-related activities, number of fast food outlets, number of bars, and percentage of obese and overweight people. You can read more about their criterion here.

So what were the 25 fattest cities of 2004?

Top 25 Fattest
2004 Ranking

1. Detroit
2. Houston
3. Dallas
4. San Antonio
5. Chicago
6. Fort Worth
7. Philadelphia
8. Arlington
9. Cleveland
10. Columbus
11. Atlanta
12. Mesa
13. Oklahoma City
14. Kansas City
15. Miami
16. Las Vegas
17. Indianapolis
18. Phoenix
19. Tulsa
20. Memphis
21. New York
22. New Orleans
23. Baltimore
24. El Paso
25. Washington

They also look at the fittest cities. The top five fittest cities of 2004 were Honolulu, San Francisco, Virginia Beach, Denver, and Colorado Springs, respectively. Seattle and Portland made it into the top ten.

You can view a powerpoint presentation about obesity trends in the US on the website of the CDC