This is not a new observation for me, but my wife and I were just in Vegas for the weekend and it brought it right to the front of my consciousness, big time.

Maybe it's because so many people make their living in Vegas with their looks: cocktail waitresses; showgirls; waiters; waitresses, etc., and it rubs off on the rest of the population. I know in the case of women - I know this for a fact, my wife confirmed it - that many women feel they "have to" look sexy just to fit in at all.

Anyway, the observation is that there are an awful lot more "in shape" people in Vegas than there are anywhere else I've been or where I live. In a gym in Vegas, I'm just another bozo on the bus. When we moved back home to NJ, my wife and I both looked like world class bodybuilders by comparison to the rest of the local gym population.

We used to see in the paper and elsewhere in the news the "obesity epidemic". I don't see much of that anymore, but I don't think that's because it's gotten any better. More likely the "news" is tired of hurting people's feelings..... I'm not saying there are no fat people in Vegas - and I'm talking about residents, not tourists - but there are a lot more fat people per segment of the local population in other places; and a LOT more "in shape" people per segment of the population in Vegas.

What's your area like, and where are you? I would imagine parts of CA are similar to Vegas; possibly parts of NYC and other major cities, too...