Why is Canberra Australia's fittest city?

probably because people here are more diet conscious and take out time to go for brisk running and maintaining health.

“””””””””That’s surprising to me. I do not see evidence of it.

I went up to Burleigh heads and despite being fit and being very happy with my body they made me feel self conscious 🙂

Everyone there had perfect tans, perfect bodies and seemed very impressive running up and down the beach or up the forest trail.

You don’t mind people wearing cutaway shorts there 🙂

All the fit people must hide out in gyms and in their cross fit cult gatherings.””””””’

Your opinions and perspectives will be shaped by the circles you move in. Most of the pretty fit people I know are are quite passionate about the subject – and subconsciously, when they see a “large” person, they’ll tend to think “I have nothing in common with that person” and physically, that would be true. The reverse is also true, of course. There’s are yawning gap between the best and your Joe Average personal trainers. The best ones understand their clients & their range of behaviours (poor body image, shattered self confidence, negative self beliefs etc) that are holding people back and work with clients to address them. The average ones have no clue at all….and yes, I look & feel like a sloth compared to the tanned, buff, hairless photoshopped Burleigh folk.

RDS said :

I went up to Burleigh heads and despite being fit and being very happy with my body they made me feel self conscious 🙂

Everyone there had perfect tans, perfect bodies and seemed very impressive running up and down the beach or up the forest trail.

The fittest areas of Australia are Canberra, Bondi Beach and the Gold Coast. Everywhere else is very unhealthy. I saw this when I went up to Taree/Forster recently. Nearly everybody there was smoking and grossly obese. I only saw one bodybuilder there and he was a tourist. Even the surf lifesavers looked like they were wearing kegs. When you go to Woden Plaza each day and see young bodybuilders and sporting types all the time you take it for granted everywhere is like that.

By the way ‘trim and thin’ does not mean always mean ‘fit’

That’s surprising to me. I do not see evidence of it.

I went up to Burleigh heads and despite being fit and being very happy with my body they made me feel self conscious 🙂

Everyone there had perfect tans, perfect bodies and seemed very impressive running up and down the beach or up the forest trail.

You don’t mind people wearing cutaway shorts there 🙂

All the fit people must hide out in gyms and in their cross fit cult gatherings.

I looked into buying an Anytime Fitness franchise here in Canberra when they hit the market:

http://www.smh.com.au/small-business/growing/secrets-of-a-worldclass-gym-20130625-2otrn.html

I hesitated due to the 5 year overhaul/ renovation in the franchise agreement, and the 6? or 8? franchises they had were snapped up in a week – and now I’m kicking myself as I exercise at the site I wanted, that’s being managed successfully.

I was attracted to the low overhead model and Canberra’s demographics as an educated, high income population with a passion for healthy activity, whatever form it took. And for this latter market in particular, they won’t give up their gym membership as it is part of their core being. In industry speak, they are “sticky”. Also, have you noticed the trampolining places popping up everywhere now? Once you did this in your own backyard, now it makes for a great kids ( and adults) function venue.

Canberra’s progressive public health and urban planning policies are the envy of many cities worldwide. The easily accessible abundant green space, with plenty of pools, cycling network separate from vehicle traffic, well kept ovals and a healthy sports club scene, limit the barriers to participation in exercise and recreational activities….and that’s what works to keep populations healthy, (along with avoiding social isolation). That’s in addition to a healthy adventure sports scene, rowing, bushwalking, mtn biking and snow sports and the coast are right there on our doorstep. We are totally spoilt for choice here. Personally, I’d love to see a whitewater facility like Penriths Olympic Venue put in somewhere near the lake. It’s one of the few things that we don’t have reliable, year round access to.

pink little birdie said :

Agree if you go on BMI, its easy to be labelled obese and also be fit and healthy. I fit into that category on a marginal overweight/obese. But I work out 5 days a week and am fit, I do many 10-20km bushwalks and do the odd obstacle course. I’d like to weigh less, but its a struggle.

I did read once that 30% of people in the healthy weight range are unfit and around 30% of people in the overweight range are fit. We have this idea in our head that if someone is normal or skinny that they are a healthy person and it just isn’t the case.

I’m overweight and yet I ride to work if the weather is fine about 3 times a week without breaking a sweat either way and it isn’t flat on the way home.
It’s easy to be active, fit and flabby.

I know what you mean, brother. As I say, my Irish ancestors didn’t survive the Potato Famine through having a fast metabolism.

Alexandra Craig said :

I saw this story on television the other day and it puzzled me because last year we were all told that 63 per cent of Canberrans are overweight or obese. And then the ABS says we’re the fittest city. It doesn’t really make sense. I know you can still be fit while overweight, but not obese. I think the ABS probably should have said ‘most active city’ as opposed to ‘fittest’, because if we were all that fit, more than half of us wouldn’t be obese.

“Fittest” is a comparative statement, not an absolute. So woke there is certainly overlap between “fit” and “iiverweight” groups, saying we are “fittest” just means people in other cities are simply “less fit”. Or less active, whichever. Our rate of overweight/obesity might sound shocking, but bear in mind that rates in other cities are higher. So it makes sense that the city with the lowest rate of overweight/obesity also has the highest rates of participation in fitness activities.

pink little birdie said :

I’m overweight and yet I ride to work if the weather is fine about 3 times a week without breaking a sweat either way and it isn’t flat on the way home.
It’s easy to be active, fit and flabby.

I’d argue that being fit, active and healthy are 3 different things. You can be all 3 at once but it’s unlikely if you’re overweight. For many years I thought I was extremely active and fitter than most – but then lost over 20kgs by cutting out cr*p.

Solidarity said :

You can also be like me, trim and thin and don’t participate in any exercise.

It’s all about food, not exercise.

This is spot on. When it comes to weight loss or gain it’s 80 per cent diet, 20 per cent exercise. In my experience training now for 15 years most people flip it the other way around and do *way* more cardio than they actually need to to either maintain or lose weight. Caloric deficit vs caloric surplus, I can’t tell people that enough.

To answer the OP’s question though, I am a boxer so my training includes weights sessions and heavy bag drills and a lot of resistance training. The only additional cardio I do is running, and it’s endurance rather than any kind of extreme crossfit fad nonsense. In five years of serious weight training I have put on 15kg and *none* of it has gone to my waistline. I am living proof it’s diet that is crucial and it’s the one thing I see way too many people getting wrong.

And to veer back to the topic, I agree that Canberra’s size means it’s a little misleading to compare our stats with cities that are much larger. It doesn’t create a meaningful comparison. It’s like saying Canberra drivers are the worst in Australia. I think there’s just less good drivers here to balance that out 😉