It’s been proven repeatedly—a lack of sunlight and colder temperatures, both of which send more people indoors, promote weight gain. Given biology and climate, it’s only logical that cities like Philadelphia, Baltimore, and Salt Lake City are prone to piling on the pounds since they were battered with record storms and snowfall this winter. But according to our number-crunching, using real-time data, residents of Northern stalwarts like New York City and D.C. are coming out of hibernation relatively slimmer than those who basked in the more temperate climes of Miami and Dallas. Apparently, there’s more to winter weight than weather.
Gallery: America’s 25 Chubbiest Cities
In figuring out which city residents added the most bloat this winter, per capita, we partnered with DailyBurn, a leading online nutritional tracking and fitness planning service, which aggregated data across its million-plus members, and provided the percentage of residents that gained weight and the average number of pounds gained for the largest 50 cities in America between Thanksgiving and the beginning of February. Both categories were weighted equally.
Want to know where your hometown falls on the scale? Click here to find out.