He added that "the heaviest people" are residents of urban public housing.
"They are living in Congress of New Urbanism nirvana, with small apartments, small land use, taking public transit," Utt said, "but they tend to be significantly overweight. Your weight has less to do with housing than with a sedentary life, more people making their living not doing any kind of physical labor, and our recreation options are sedentary -- VCRs and DVDs have eliminated the need even to go to a movie theater."
And other factors complicate the picture. For example, cities may force a person to walk more and become slimmer. But cities can also trap pollution from cars, making it extremely unhealthy, especially for people with asthma.
Still, Frank's findings could hold useful implications for urban planning and for how people think about where they want to live.
Stephanie Bothwell, a health and design consultant for the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, the largest philanthropy devoted exclusively to health issues in the US, said foundation officials were especially concerned about obesity and the link with community design.
"If people didn't exercise as part of their everyday activity, as opposed to relying on gyms and diet, they probably weren't going to win this war," she said. "So they began looking at how you design urban settings in such a way that people want to walk, love to walk, need to walk, are delighted to walk."
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