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From Altitude to Activity: Why Colorado Is One of the Healthiest States
Colorado has among the lowest obesity rates in the US. Learn the environmental, cultural and policy factors behind that edge and how to apply them anywhere.
Written by
Gabriel Tan
Colorado is widely known for its outdoor culture, high mountains and active communities. That reputation is backed by data: the state consistently reports some of the lowest obesity rates and strongest heart health indicators in the nation.
Colorado's Advantage
The reason is not a single “secret.” Rather, Colorado’s advantage is an interaction of geography, culture, infrastructure, demography and public policy that together favor activity, healthy food access and lower cardiometabolic risk.
To understand what makes Colorado different and why it matters for anyone trying to prevent or reverse obesity, it helps to look at the mechanisms behind excess weight and then see how Colorado’s environment reduces those drivers.
What Obesity Does to the Body
Obesity is not simply excess weight. It is a chronic metabolic state that alters hormones, inflammation and organ function. Adipose tissue, especially visceral fat around the abdomen, acts like an endocrine organ, secreting inflammatory cytokines and hormones that promote insulin resistance.
Over time these changes increase the risk for:
Type 2 diabetes or pre-diabetes
Heart disease and stroke
Certain cancers like colon and breast cancers
Fatty liver disease and liver inflammation
Sleep apnea, joint gegeneration and low-grade chronic inflammation
Declining mobility, quality of life and life expectancy
The body responds to prolonged energy excess by changing appetite regulation, fat storage set points and even cell-level metabolism. That is why durable weight loss requires more than willpower. It requires changing the environment that constantly nudges the body toward high calorie intake and low activity.
What Colorado Does Differently
A built environment that favors activity
Colorado cities and towns frequently invest in parks, trails and active-transport options. In many communities, trails and open spaces are integrated into daily life, making incidental movement common. The easier it is to walk, bike or get outdoors, the more physical activity accumulates across a week.
An outdoor-first culture
Outdoor recreation is normative in Colorado. Snow sports, hiking, mountain biking, trail running and paddling are mainstream hobbies that pull residents out of cars and into high-energy movement. Culture shapes behavior. When an activity is social, fun and widely accessible, it becomes sustainable.
Higher baseline fitness and habitual exercise
Long-term habit of frequent physical activity raises baseline metabolic health. People who move regularly have higher mitochondrial function, better insulin sensitivity and more lean mass, all factors that make weight maintenance and fat loss easier than in sedentary populations.
Demographic and socioeconomic factors
Colorado’s population includes a higher share of working-age adults living in urban and suburban settings with jobs and lifestyles that make active commuting and outdoor time feasible. Socioeconomic status, education levels and access to recreational resources all exert influence on obesity patterns.
Policy, planning and public health investment
Local policy around park funding, bike lanes, school-based physical education and healthy food initiatives helps shape long-term population behaviors. Policies that make healthy choices the default like safer streets, accessible parks and school nutrition standards, lower barriers to healthy living.
Environment and possibly altitude effects
Colorado’s higher elevation means greater solar radiation and a culture that encourages outdoor time year-round. Some hypotheses propose that altitude affects appetite or energy expenditure and that greater sun exposure supports vitamin D levels, which can interact with metabolic health. These mechanisms are plausible, but they are only part of a larger picture and not a guaranteed solution for everyone.
Taken together, these factors make healthy behavior easier to enact and sustain in Colorado. It is the aggregated effect of many small, consistent signals like social, environmental, and infrastructural ones, that creates the state’s health advantage.
How Colorado Prevents the Biological Cascade of Obesity
When people move more and consume fewer ultra-processed calories on average, insulin demands are lower, systemic inflammation is reduced and metabolic flexibility improves. Those changes protect mitochondrial function, preserve lean muscle mass and keep fat oxidation responsive to fasting or exercise stimuli.
In an environment that encourages daily movement and offers safe places to play and commute, the body maintains a healthier set point for body composition and metabolic health.
Systemic Changes Compound into Population Effects
Colorado shows how cumulative advantages like walkable design, outdoor sport culture, supportive policy and higher baseline activity move an entire population’s risk profile.
Public health gains are rarely achieved by single interventions. Instead, they come from many aligned signals that nudge billions of daily choices in a healthier direction. That is why Colorado’s pattern is instructive: it is not a miracle, it is a replicable design principle.
Final Word
Obesity is dangerous because it rewires metabolism, raises inflammation and shortens healthy lifespan. Colorado’s lower obesity rates are not a matter of superior genetics or moral superiority. They are a real-world example of how environment, culture and policy shape biology.
Individuals can borrow Colorado’s blueprint by prioritizing incidental movement, committing to outdoor exercise and social activity, optimizing sleep and nutrition and using medical tools when appropriate.
Long-term success is not about strict deprivation. It is about making healthy choices the easy, normal choice every day. That is the real lesson from Colorado: shape the environment, and the body will follow.
Resources
Related Articles
Get a deeper look into your health.
Schedule online, results in a week
Clear guidance, follow-up care available
HSA/FSA Eligible
Comments
Get a deeper look into your health.
Schedule online, results in a week
Clear guidance, follow-up care available
HSA/FSA Eligible
From Altitude to Activity: Why Colorado Is One of the Healthiest States
Colorado has among the lowest obesity rates in the US. Learn the environmental, cultural and policy factors behind that edge and how to apply them anywhere.
Written by
Gabriel Tan
Colorado is widely known for its outdoor culture, high mountains and active communities. That reputation is backed by data: the state consistently reports some of the lowest obesity rates and strongest heart health indicators in the nation.
Colorado's Advantage
The reason is not a single “secret.” Rather, Colorado’s advantage is an interaction of geography, culture, infrastructure, demography and public policy that together favor activity, healthy food access and lower cardiometabolic risk.
To understand what makes Colorado different and why it matters for anyone trying to prevent or reverse obesity, it helps to look at the mechanisms behind excess weight and then see how Colorado’s environment reduces those drivers.
What Obesity Does to the Body
Obesity is not simply excess weight. It is a chronic metabolic state that alters hormones, inflammation and organ function. Adipose tissue, especially visceral fat around the abdomen, acts like an endocrine organ, secreting inflammatory cytokines and hormones that promote insulin resistance.
Over time these changes increase the risk for:
Type 2 diabetes or pre-diabetes
Heart disease and stroke
Certain cancers like colon and breast cancers
Fatty liver disease and liver inflammation
Sleep apnea, joint gegeneration and low-grade chronic inflammation
Declining mobility, quality of life and life expectancy
The body responds to prolonged energy excess by changing appetite regulation, fat storage set points and even cell-level metabolism. That is why durable weight loss requires more than willpower. It requires changing the environment that constantly nudges the body toward high calorie intake and low activity.
What Colorado Does Differently
A built environment that favors activity
Colorado cities and towns frequently invest in parks, trails and active-transport options. In many communities, trails and open spaces are integrated into daily life, making incidental movement common. The easier it is to walk, bike or get outdoors, the more physical activity accumulates across a week.
An outdoor-first culture
Outdoor recreation is normative in Colorado. Snow sports, hiking, mountain biking, trail running and paddling are mainstream hobbies that pull residents out of cars and into high-energy movement. Culture shapes behavior. When an activity is social, fun and widely accessible, it becomes sustainable.
Higher baseline fitness and habitual exercise
Long-term habit of frequent physical activity raises baseline metabolic health. People who move regularly have higher mitochondrial function, better insulin sensitivity and more lean mass, all factors that make weight maintenance and fat loss easier than in sedentary populations.
Demographic and socioeconomic factors
Colorado’s population includes a higher share of working-age adults living in urban and suburban settings with jobs and lifestyles that make active commuting and outdoor time feasible. Socioeconomic status, education levels and access to recreational resources all exert influence on obesity patterns.
Policy, planning and public health investment
Local policy around park funding, bike lanes, school-based physical education and healthy food initiatives helps shape long-term population behaviors. Policies that make healthy choices the default like safer streets, accessible parks and school nutrition standards, lower barriers to healthy living.
Environment and possibly altitude effects
Colorado’s higher elevation means greater solar radiation and a culture that encourages outdoor time year-round. Some hypotheses propose that altitude affects appetite or energy expenditure and that greater sun exposure supports vitamin D levels, which can interact with metabolic health. These mechanisms are plausible, but they are only part of a larger picture and not a guaranteed solution for everyone.
Taken together, these factors make healthy behavior easier to enact and sustain in Colorado. It is the aggregated effect of many small, consistent signals like social, environmental, and infrastructural ones, that creates the state’s health advantage.
How Colorado Prevents the Biological Cascade of Obesity
When people move more and consume fewer ultra-processed calories on average, insulin demands are lower, systemic inflammation is reduced and metabolic flexibility improves. Those changes protect mitochondrial function, preserve lean muscle mass and keep fat oxidation responsive to fasting or exercise stimuli.
In an environment that encourages daily movement and offers safe places to play and commute, the body maintains a healthier set point for body composition and metabolic health.
Systemic Changes Compound into Population Effects
Colorado shows how cumulative advantages like walkable design, outdoor sport culture, supportive policy and higher baseline activity move an entire population’s risk profile.
Public health gains are rarely achieved by single interventions. Instead, they come from many aligned signals that nudge billions of daily choices in a healthier direction. That is why Colorado’s pattern is instructive: it is not a miracle, it is a replicable design principle.
Final Word
Obesity is dangerous because it rewires metabolism, raises inflammation and shortens healthy lifespan. Colorado’s lower obesity rates are not a matter of superior genetics or moral superiority. They are a real-world example of how environment, culture and policy shape biology.
Individuals can borrow Colorado’s blueprint by prioritizing incidental movement, committing to outdoor exercise and social activity, optimizing sleep and nutrition and using medical tools when appropriate.
Long-term success is not about strict deprivation. It is about making healthy choices the easy, normal choice every day. That is the real lesson from Colorado: shape the environment, and the body will follow.
Resources
Related Articles
Get a deeper look into your health.
Schedule online, results in a week
Clear guidance, follow-up care available
HSA/FSA Eligible
Comments
From Altitude to Activity: Why Colorado Is One of the Healthiest States
Colorado has among the lowest obesity rates in the US. Learn the environmental, cultural and policy factors behind that edge and how to apply them anywhere.
Written by
Gabriel Tan
Colorado is widely known for its outdoor culture, high mountains and active communities. That reputation is backed by data: the state consistently reports some of the lowest obesity rates and strongest heart health indicators in the nation.
Colorado's Advantage
The reason is not a single “secret.” Rather, Colorado’s advantage is an interaction of geography, culture, infrastructure, demography and public policy that together favor activity, healthy food access and lower cardiometabolic risk.
To understand what makes Colorado different and why it matters for anyone trying to prevent or reverse obesity, it helps to look at the mechanisms behind excess weight and then see how Colorado’s environment reduces those drivers.
What Obesity Does to the Body
Obesity is not simply excess weight. It is a chronic metabolic state that alters hormones, inflammation and organ function. Adipose tissue, especially visceral fat around the abdomen, acts like an endocrine organ, secreting inflammatory cytokines and hormones that promote insulin resistance.
Over time these changes increase the risk for:
Type 2 diabetes or pre-diabetes
Heart disease and stroke
Certain cancers like colon and breast cancers
Fatty liver disease and liver inflammation
Sleep apnea, joint gegeneration and low-grade chronic inflammation
Declining mobility, quality of life and life expectancy
The body responds to prolonged energy excess by changing appetite regulation, fat storage set points and even cell-level metabolism. That is why durable weight loss requires more than willpower. It requires changing the environment that constantly nudges the body toward high calorie intake and low activity.
What Colorado Does Differently
A built environment that favors activity
Colorado cities and towns frequently invest in parks, trails and active-transport options. In many communities, trails and open spaces are integrated into daily life, making incidental movement common. The easier it is to walk, bike or get outdoors, the more physical activity accumulates across a week.
An outdoor-first culture
Outdoor recreation is normative in Colorado. Snow sports, hiking, mountain biking, trail running and paddling are mainstream hobbies that pull residents out of cars and into high-energy movement. Culture shapes behavior. When an activity is social, fun and widely accessible, it becomes sustainable.
Higher baseline fitness and habitual exercise
Long-term habit of frequent physical activity raises baseline metabolic health. People who move regularly have higher mitochondrial function, better insulin sensitivity and more lean mass, all factors that make weight maintenance and fat loss easier than in sedentary populations.
Demographic and socioeconomic factors
Colorado’s population includes a higher share of working-age adults living in urban and suburban settings with jobs and lifestyles that make active commuting and outdoor time feasible. Socioeconomic status, education levels and access to recreational resources all exert influence on obesity patterns.
Policy, planning and public health investment
Local policy around park funding, bike lanes, school-based physical education and healthy food initiatives helps shape long-term population behaviors. Policies that make healthy choices the default like safer streets, accessible parks and school nutrition standards, lower barriers to healthy living.
Environment and possibly altitude effects
Colorado’s higher elevation means greater solar radiation and a culture that encourages outdoor time year-round. Some hypotheses propose that altitude affects appetite or energy expenditure and that greater sun exposure supports vitamin D levels, which can interact with metabolic health. These mechanisms are plausible, but they are only part of a larger picture and not a guaranteed solution for everyone.
Taken together, these factors make healthy behavior easier to enact and sustain in Colorado. It is the aggregated effect of many small, consistent signals like social, environmental, and infrastructural ones, that creates the state’s health advantage.
How Colorado Prevents the Biological Cascade of Obesity
When people move more and consume fewer ultra-processed calories on average, insulin demands are lower, systemic inflammation is reduced and metabolic flexibility improves. Those changes protect mitochondrial function, preserve lean muscle mass and keep fat oxidation responsive to fasting or exercise stimuli.
In an environment that encourages daily movement and offers safe places to play and commute, the body maintains a healthier set point for body composition and metabolic health.
Systemic Changes Compound into Population Effects
Colorado shows how cumulative advantages like walkable design, outdoor sport culture, supportive policy and higher baseline activity move an entire population’s risk profile.
Public health gains are rarely achieved by single interventions. Instead, they come from many aligned signals that nudge billions of daily choices in a healthier direction. That is why Colorado’s pattern is instructive: it is not a miracle, it is a replicable design principle.
Final Word
Obesity is dangerous because it rewires metabolism, raises inflammation and shortens healthy lifespan. Colorado’s lower obesity rates are not a matter of superior genetics or moral superiority. They are a real-world example of how environment, culture and policy shape biology.
Individuals can borrow Colorado’s blueprint by prioritizing incidental movement, committing to outdoor exercise and social activity, optimizing sleep and nutrition and using medical tools when appropriate.
Long-term success is not about strict deprivation. It is about making healthy choices the easy, normal choice every day. That is the real lesson from Colorado: shape the environment, and the body will follow.
Resources
Related Articles
Get a deeper look into your health.
Schedule online, results in a week
Clear guidance, follow-up care available
HSA/FSA Eligible
Comments
From Altitude to Activity: Why Colorado Is One of the Healthiest States
Colorado has among the lowest obesity rates in the US. Learn the environmental, cultural and policy factors behind that edge and how to apply them anywhere.
Written by
Gabriel Tan
Colorado is widely known for its outdoor culture, high mountains and active communities. That reputation is backed by data: the state consistently reports some of the lowest obesity rates and strongest heart health indicators in the nation.
Colorado's Advantage
The reason is not a single “secret.” Rather, Colorado’s advantage is an interaction of geography, culture, infrastructure, demography and public policy that together favor activity, healthy food access and lower cardiometabolic risk.
To understand what makes Colorado different and why it matters for anyone trying to prevent or reverse obesity, it helps to look at the mechanisms behind excess weight and then see how Colorado’s environment reduces those drivers.
What Obesity Does to the Body
Obesity is not simply excess weight. It is a chronic metabolic state that alters hormones, inflammation and organ function. Adipose tissue, especially visceral fat around the abdomen, acts like an endocrine organ, secreting inflammatory cytokines and hormones that promote insulin resistance.
Over time these changes increase the risk for:
Type 2 diabetes or pre-diabetes
Heart disease and stroke
Certain cancers like colon and breast cancers
Fatty liver disease and liver inflammation
Sleep apnea, joint gegeneration and low-grade chronic inflammation
Declining mobility, quality of life and life expectancy
The body responds to prolonged energy excess by changing appetite regulation, fat storage set points and even cell-level metabolism. That is why durable weight loss requires more than willpower. It requires changing the environment that constantly nudges the body toward high calorie intake and low activity.
What Colorado Does Differently
A built environment that favors activity
Colorado cities and towns frequently invest in parks, trails and active-transport options. In many communities, trails and open spaces are integrated into daily life, making incidental movement common. The easier it is to walk, bike or get outdoors, the more physical activity accumulates across a week.
An outdoor-first culture
Outdoor recreation is normative in Colorado. Snow sports, hiking, mountain biking, trail running and paddling are mainstream hobbies that pull residents out of cars and into high-energy movement. Culture shapes behavior. When an activity is social, fun and widely accessible, it becomes sustainable.
Higher baseline fitness and habitual exercise
Long-term habit of frequent physical activity raises baseline metabolic health. People who move regularly have higher mitochondrial function, better insulin sensitivity and more lean mass, all factors that make weight maintenance and fat loss easier than in sedentary populations.
Demographic and socioeconomic factors
Colorado’s population includes a higher share of working-age adults living in urban and suburban settings with jobs and lifestyles that make active commuting and outdoor time feasible. Socioeconomic status, education levels and access to recreational resources all exert influence on obesity patterns.
Policy, planning and public health investment
Local policy around park funding, bike lanes, school-based physical education and healthy food initiatives helps shape long-term population behaviors. Policies that make healthy choices the default like safer streets, accessible parks and school nutrition standards, lower barriers to healthy living.
Environment and possibly altitude effects
Colorado’s higher elevation means greater solar radiation and a culture that encourages outdoor time year-round. Some hypotheses propose that altitude affects appetite or energy expenditure and that greater sun exposure supports vitamin D levels, which can interact with metabolic health. These mechanisms are plausible, but they are only part of a larger picture and not a guaranteed solution for everyone.
Taken together, these factors make healthy behavior easier to enact and sustain in Colorado. It is the aggregated effect of many small, consistent signals like social, environmental, and infrastructural ones, that creates the state’s health advantage.
How Colorado Prevents the Biological Cascade of Obesity
When people move more and consume fewer ultra-processed calories on average, insulin demands are lower, systemic inflammation is reduced and metabolic flexibility improves. Those changes protect mitochondrial function, preserve lean muscle mass and keep fat oxidation responsive to fasting or exercise stimuli.
In an environment that encourages daily movement and offers safe places to play and commute, the body maintains a healthier set point for body composition and metabolic health.
Systemic Changes Compound into Population Effects
Colorado shows how cumulative advantages like walkable design, outdoor sport culture, supportive policy and higher baseline activity move an entire population’s risk profile.
Public health gains are rarely achieved by single interventions. Instead, they come from many aligned signals that nudge billions of daily choices in a healthier direction. That is why Colorado’s pattern is instructive: it is not a miracle, it is a replicable design principle.
Final Word
Obesity is dangerous because it rewires metabolism, raises inflammation and shortens healthy lifespan. Colorado’s lower obesity rates are not a matter of superior genetics or moral superiority. They are a real-world example of how environment, culture and policy shape biology.
Individuals can borrow Colorado’s blueprint by prioritizing incidental movement, committing to outdoor exercise and social activity, optimizing sleep and nutrition and using medical tools when appropriate.
Long-term success is not about strict deprivation. It is about making healthy choices the easy, normal choice every day. That is the real lesson from Colorado: shape the environment, and the body will follow.
Resources
Related Articles
Get a deeper look into your health.
Schedule online, results in a week
Clear guidance, follow-up care available
HSA/FSA Eligible
Get a deeper look into your health.
Schedule online, results in a week
Clear guidance, follow-up care available
HSA/FSA Eligible
Comments
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In-depth recommendations across exercise, nutrition, and supplements
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Meet with your dedicated care team to review your results and define next steps
Lifetime health record tracking
Upload past labs and monitor your progress over time
Biological age analysis
See how your body is aging and what’s driving it
Order add-on tests and scans anytime
Access to advanced diagnostics at discounted rates for members
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Valentine's Offer: Get $75 off your membership
Codeveloped with experts at MIT & Stanford
Less than $1/ day
Billed annually - cancel anytime
Bundle options:
Individual
$399
$324
/year
or 4 interest-free payments of $87.25*
Duo Bundle
(For 2)
$798
$563
/year
or 4 interest-free payments of $167*
Pricing for members in NY, NJ & RI may vary.
Checkout with HSA/FSA
Secure, private platform
What's included
1 Comprehensive lab test (Core)
One appointment, test at 2,000+ labs nationwide
Personalized health insights & action plan
In-depth recommendations across exercise, nutrition, and supplements
1:1 Consultation
Meet with your dedicated care team to review your results and define next steps
Lifetime health record tracking
Upload past labs and monitor your progress over time
Biological age analysis
See how your body is aging and what’s driving it
Order add-on tests and scans anytime
Access to advanced diagnostics at discounted rates for members
Concierge-level care, made accessible.
Valentine's Offer: Get $75 off your membership
Codeveloped with experts at MIT & Stanford
Less than $1/ day
Billed annually - cancel anytime
Bundle options:
Individual
$399
$324
/year
or 4 interest-free payments of $87.25*
Duo Bundle (For 2)
$798
$563
/year
or 4 interest-free payments of $167*
Pricing for members in NY, NJ & RI may vary.
Checkout with HSA/FSA
Secure, private platform
What's included
1 Comprehensive lab test (Core)
One appointment, test at 2,000+ labs nationwide
Personalized health insights & action plan
In-depth recommendations across exercise, nutrition, and supplements
1:1 Consultation
Meet with your dedicated care team to review your results and define next steps
Lifetime health record tracking
Upload past labs and monitor your progress over time
Biological age analysis
See how your body is aging and what’s driving it
Order add-on tests and scans anytime
Access to advanced diagnostics at discounted rates for members
Concierge-level care, made accessible.
Valentine's Offer: Get $75 off your membership
Codeveloped with experts at MIT & Stanford
Less than $1/ day
Billed annually - cancel anytime
Bundle options:
Individual
$399
$324
/year
or 4 payments of $87.25*
Duo Bundle
(For 2)
$798
$563
/year
or 4 payments of $167*
Pricing for members in NY, NJ & RI may vary.
Checkout with HSA/FSA
Secure, private platform