Spokane ranks among top fittest cities in U.S.
This story has been edited from previous versions to attribute most of the study results to Fitbit rather than to the Physical Activity Council.
Spokane ranks among the country’s top 10 fittest cities, according to a new list released by Fitbit from data from personal activity tracker devices.
The rankings used aggregated data such as daily steps, active minutes, resting heart rate and sleep duration from more than 10 million users of Fitbit in 2016. The device can be worn like a watch and paired with a smartphone app to track a person’s activity, exercise, sleep, weight and more so goals can be set and progress charted.
Spokane ranked No. 9 in the country in the annual survey behind a top 20 list that was heavily weighted by towns in Wisconsin.
That No. 9 ranking is not totally good news for Spokane. In last year’s Fitbit report, the city ranked No. 3. Some cities are getting more fit, or we’re going downhill.
But it’s all good news considering that we’ve apparently risen from the shame of Spokanites being dissed in Travel and Leisure magazine’s ranking of least attractive cities in 2016. The ugliest cities in the T&L rankings were found in Baltimore and Sacramento. Spokane ranked No. 3 on the list and Spokanites were singled out as being ho-hum for eye candy.
The T&L website reported, “Readers don’t consider the locals all that eye-catching, preferring instead to take in the impressive views of Spokane Falls, a series of waterfalls that thunder through the city while staying at quirky hotels like the crowd-funded Kirtland K. Cutter House.”
Apparently Spokanites are fit but ugly, or perhaps we were unattractive before we got fit, or before we got Fitbit.
Across the country, Americans are definitely not looking so good health-wise. Not quite a third of the U.S. population reported being active to a healthy level, according to the Physical Activity Council’s 2017 study and report.
A dearth of nightlife might be a positive factor into Spokane’s top 10 fitness ranking. In the 2017 Fitbit report, Spokane is No. 4 on the list of cities that get the most sleep, with an average duration of 7 hours and 4 minutes a night.
Better to be a snoozer than a loser.