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Magazine Lists Cities With Best Abs, Worst Flab
San Francisco Earns A+ Grade For Abs
POSTED: 3:57 pm EDT October 4,
2004
Heading to San Francisco? Be prepared to feast your eyes on some six-pack abs.Men's Health magazine graded 60 U.S. cities on the "Best Abs" and "Worst Flab." San Francisco, Oakland, Calif., and Austin, Texas, earned A+ scores for abs, while Boston and Washington, D.C., rounded out the top five cities with A grades.Seven cities were given an F and ranked the nation's flabbiest: St. Louis, Cleveland, Memphis, Tenn., Jacksonville, Fla., Detroit, Virginia Beach, Va., and El Paso, Texas.
"Most critics see a chiseled midsection as the modern American symbol of vanity," said David Zinczenko, the magazine's editor in chief. "However, there is no greater bellwether for our nation's health than the state of the national abdomen. A trim waist means a lower risk of diabetes, heart disease, various cancers, and even impotence."To grade cities' abs, the magazine's editors gathered numerous indicators that would reflect the "abbiness" or "flabbiness" of the cities' populations, including body-mass index counts by county; back surgery rates from the Center for Disease Control and Prevention -- because weak abs mean vulnerable backs; usage rates for gyms and abdominal machines; numbers of weight lifters per city; diabetes rates -- because big bellies are the precursors to the disease; and blood-pressure measurements, since less exercise leads to higher blood pressure.The results are published in the Oct. 19 issue of Men's Health.Zinczenko offers some advice for the cities fighting "flab" from his New York Times national bestseller, "The Abs Diet":
Full List: Best Abs, Worst Flab "Most critics see a chiseled midsection as the modern American symbol of vanity," said David Zinczenko, the magazine's editor in chief. "However, there is no greater bellwether for our nation's health than the state of the national abdomen. A trim waist means a lower risk of diabetes, heart disease, various cancers, and even impotence."To grade cities' abs, the magazine's editors gathered numerous indicators that would reflect the "abbiness" or "flabbiness" of the cities' populations, including body-mass index counts by county; back surgery rates from the Center for Disease Control and Prevention -- because weak abs mean vulnerable backs; usage rates for gyms and abdominal machines; numbers of weight lifters per city; diabetes rates -- because big bellies are the precursors to the disease; and blood-pressure measurements, since less exercise leads to higher blood pressure.The results are published in the Oct. 19 issue of Men's Health.Zinczenko offers some advice for the cities fighting "flab" from his New York Times national bestseller, "The Abs Diet":
- Eat Six Meals A Day. People who eat three meals a day (or skip breakfast) go through tremendous hunger pangs during the day. When they eat, they pig out. To control hunger, plan for three meals and three substantial snacks every day.Vary Your Exercise Diet. To lose weight and keep it off for life, you'll need to stoke your body's natural fat burners: your muscles. The best way to do this is by combining strength training, cardiovascular exercise, and ab and back exercises.Invite Your Significant Other To Join In. Study after study has shown that having a steady workout partner vastly increases the chances that you'll stick with a new workout plan. The same goes for a new nutrition plan.
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