Hey, America, want to lose weight? Try getting out of your car.

The  Journal of Physical Activity & Health recently released a report studying the relationship between obesity rates in developed countries and the percentage of the population that regularly uses active transportation (i.e. transportation that requires you to do more than sit on your butt and turn a steering wheel.) In shockingly obvious results, the report found that there is an inverse relationship between active transportation and obesity. Viewing the full report requires you pay for it, but MSNBC reported that only 12 % of Americans take active transportation with a 1/3rd of the population classified as obese while in Sweden 62 % use active transportation with only a 9% obesity rate.

Moral of the story: If we want to tackle obesity in this country, building cities that allow people to easily walk, bike, or take public transit would be a great first step to better health in the general population.