[Schiendelman]

Absolutely. There's a reason body fat percentage in New York City is so much lower than anywhere else in the US!

[Gigachad]

This is something I've visually observed all over Australia. The walkable areas are noticeably fitter. I don't think all of those people just happen to care about fitness more, they just spend more time moving to get between places rather than sitting all day.

[Schiendelman]

Absolutely! Fitness scales super closely with localized population density.

[Earw0rm]

This is a recent phenomenon.

The original reason for low population density was agricultural work, which - even in the early days of mechanisation - was plenty physical.

Living in exurbia to work and consume like a city dweller is a new kind of stupid.

[Schiendelman]

Yep, and we caused it, through the massive subsidy to cars that was the federal highway program. Many tranches of spending, from ~1937 forward, caused this.