"I moved to the city."
Anne Lewis, 58, Baltimore, Maryland
Lost: 14 pounds
Maintained for: Three years
A few years ago, Lewis and her husband left rural Minnesota for a high-rise in Baltimore, where a harbor promenade starts right outside their front door. The unintended but much welcomed side effect was a 14-pound loss. "In the country, I could just let the dog out the back door," Lewis says. "Now I have to walk her, so we do two-and-a-half miles every morning." Being less dependent on a car also makes a big difference: "Now we walk to dinner instead of driving everywhere -- why bother dealing with parking?" she says.
The neighborhood-waistline link is an emerging area of obesity research. A 2003 study found that people who live in the most walkable communities are on average six pounds lighter than those in the most sprawling suburbs. Another survey of nearly 11,000 Atlanta residents found that those who spent the most time in cars were more likely to be obese than those who walked to shops and offices. "Traveling by foot is a painless way to keep weight off," Hensrud says.
