After reading everyone's posts on the car culture in the US I think I'm going to add a bit more to what I said earlier.

I live JUST OUTSIDE the NYC boros. And I mean JUST OUTSIDE, like literally if I walked five minutes I would be in one of the outer boros. These are still very much suburbs (well in some cases. Downtown Brooklyn certainly isn't!) where you need a car but I never have to drive all that far to get anywhere and usually I can park and walk to several stores. I like where I am, but I do wish I didn't have to drive my car so much. Then again it's very easy for me to hop on a train and go to Manhattan and have some fun there.

I actually wouldn't mind taking a job in Manhattan; it's one of the places I'm focusing on in my job hunt Right now I work in one of the outer boros and I really like driving five minutes and being able to walk around an area. Drive another five minutes and I'm somewhere else with a lot of places to go! It's awesome!

Where I live is sort of like that. You definitely need a car on Long Island, but where I am is sort of like the above where I work. You don't need to drive all that long and suddenly you're at a place where you'll probably be walking for a while.

I HATE WHERE MY FIANCE LIVES. He is over half hour away from me by car and by him you need to drive at least 20 minutes to get somewhere and there isn't much walking around to do at that place. The mall near him is small and boring (when I have one of the biggest malls in the country by me) and there just isn't much to do that doesn't involve sitting. Luckily there is an outlet mall near him but there isn't much there either. I see many many many more obese people out by him and being thin is pretty rare if you are older!

I call it "the country" but it's certainly far from it. Upstate NY can be much more spread out than that.

I already told him we're not living there and he's cool with that because he'd rather just not live near his parents LOL. I really would like to live where I am now or in one of the outer boros.

I've lived in and just outside NYC, I've lived in nicer parts of NJ, I've lived in various parts of the South and it's like this - where there is money, there are mostly thin people. Where there is poverty, there will be obesity.

I live in Columbia, MD (Howard County) now. Have to say, for a suburb, this is a very friendly community for getting fit and it draws the fit minded to it. Not so much to Ellicott City (there people go for the supposedly better schools), but for being able to exercise? Where we live ROCKS.

We live in the original part of town of the planned community. Walking distance to the mall, post office, grocery stores, library, hospital and all schools including the community college. AND there are paths for bikes and walking everywhere. You can walk safely and in pretty areas. THEN there is the community association which runs all the gyms and pools. Our family pays $90 a month to belong to every pool in the city (like over 30 pools), 3 gyms, outdoor tennis courts, mini golf, batting cages, etc. AND that includes free classes and child care (up to 2 hours a day) - I don't pay extra for my classes (though hiring a personal trainer and some classes have an extra fee). It has made getting fit so much easier as I have so many options. I love it here. It's the next best thing to living in the big city. (Which I would love to do too).

I live in Georgia, so there are plenty of overweight people down here and it seems to be acceptable. I wish there was something I could do to help other people get motivated to lose weight and get healthy!

That's because the only people who can manage to drive in Troy are the people who grew up there! All those freakin' one way streets! I've been going to Revolution Hall on St Patrick's day to see Hair of the Dog for over 10 years, and I STILL need the GPS to get back home!

I live in the suburbs of NYC and would say the norm is starting to be 'overweight.' Young kids are still relatively normal, but starting past 20+, I'd say most everyone I see are either on the borderline or already overweight. Definitely a noticeable population of obesity too.

I didn't grow up there - I'm from Colonie/Niskayuna. I remember back in the day when Rev Hall was a cool venue with regular bands...what's up with that?!

All roads lead to 6th Ave or Hoosick --> 787!

^^^Really? You're the first person that's ever told me that! Even my coworker who grew up in Troy said I'd never understand driving there because I didn't grow up there. Maybe I'd figure it out if I went there more than once a year.

Yeah, they remodeled Rev Hall a year or 2 ago, and they hardly have any concerts there anymore.

I lived in Memphis for a few years. The city proper was very walkable, in daylight hours. However, I didn't see to many people walking. The city prides it self on food and gluttony is not a deadly sin but an acquired skill. I saw a poster for the barbecue festival that said "last year Memphis was the 5 th fattest city in the country, this year let's go for number 4!"

I've only lived in the midwest, so it's hard to compare what I haven't seen. I can compare Illinois to Wisconsin.

Supposedly Illinois and Wisconsin have very similar obesity rates (research puts them only a couple percentage points apart), but it seems like Wisconsin has more obese people than Illinois. It's certainly been "easier" to be very obese in Wisconsin (and I don't mean that in a fat-promoting way).

In Wisconsin, I've had less difficulty finding respectful doctors (willing to treat the body I have today not the one I might have some time in the furture). I've had less trouble finding nice clothing EVEN in the second-hand stores. I see more fat people "out and about" and engaging in physical activity both in the gym and in public. It's not assumed that being fat prevents you from being active and you see fat bicyclists, fat hikers, fat skiers, fat hunters...

At least where I lived in Illinois, it was pretty much assumed that if you were obese (especially very obese) you were expected to pretty much stay home and hide. If you were seen doing something active like swimming or bicycling there was a good chance that you'd be ridiculed if not openly then quietly (but you'd see the staring, laughing and whispering).

I LOVE Wisconsin, because not only is it "easier" to be obese, it's also much easier to do something about it. When I saw my first very obese bicyclists I was shocked and then overjoyed (and convinced my husband that we had to go out and buy bikes). I don't have good balance on most days because of my fibromyalgia and arthritis, so I don't get to use my bicycle very often, but every spring I get it out and do what I can. I know I look ridiculous - like a giant grade-schooler relearning to ride every year, but I don't feel ashamed or afraid like I did in Illinois.

In Illinois I always felt like a fat person who was "breaking the rules" when I acted like a normal person. In Wisconsin, I feel like a person who happens to be fat. I love that people don't gape when I talk about being active - it's assumed and even taken for granted that people of all sizes are active here. Outdoor sports and activities are very popular all-year round for people of all sizes.

Fast food is just as popular, but shunning fast food also seems to be more popular here. Health food stores also seem to be more tolerant/accepting towards larger bodies. In some parts of Illinois, I always felt like I must have been the only fat person who ever shopped the health food stores (I'd feel the staff and customer's eyes on my back the whole time I shopped) and in Wisconsin I feel less the freak.

I don't know if the towns I lived in in Illinois were representative of the state, or if my experience here in Wisconsin is representative of all of Wisconsin - but I do love the area I'm living in now. It's a bit ironic that I have found it much easier to lose weight when I feel less like a freak for being overweight.

That's why I don't believe that "fat acceptance" encourages obesity. I think that treating fat people like normal people actually helps make weight loss easier. Here I don't feel that I'm "supposed to be in hiding," or that when I am in public everyone is staring as I did in some places I lived in Illinois.