People Who Bike Or Walk To Work Are More Fit, Less Fat Than Drivers

“Trying to get fit but can't work it into your daily schedule? Incorporating even relatively short bouts of exercise into a daily commute appears to deliver significant rewards, according to a new study from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Researchers looked at the health and fitness levels of active commuters people who walk or ride a bike to work at least part of the way compared to those who drive or take public transportation. Men and women who were active commuters performed better on a fitness test, according to the study published in the July 13, 2009, issue of Archives of Internal Medicine. And men who walk or bike have lower obesity rates as well as healthier triglyceride levels, blood pressure and insulin levels, said study author Penny Gordon-Larsen, Ph.D., nutrition associate professor in UNC's Gillings School of Global Public Health. ‘We don't know why women don't reap all the same health benefits as men,’ said Gordon-Larsen, an obesity epidemiologist.

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