A new health study show that residents of Northern Alberta, including those in the Fort MacMurray and Wood Buffalo areas, are more likely to be heavier than average when the national and provincial weight averages are calculated in. The Health Quality Council of Alberta released a report on July 29, 2015 that detailed the findings. According to the report 59% of the adults from Northern Alberta who were surveyed, out of 4,424 adults in all, were either overweight or obese. On average across the entire nation 54% of Canadians are either overweight or obese according to the statistics released by Statistics Canada. To be considered overweight or obese an adult will have a body mass index that is considered higher than what is acceptable for good health.

According to the health study estimates for Northern Alberta 7 out of 10 adults in the north zone area are overweight or obese. This area includes all communities north of Edmonton, which means Wood Buffalo and Fort MacMurray. South zone adults fared a little better, with 6.4 out of 10 people categorized as overweight or obese according to their BMI. Wood Buffalo Primary Care Network communications advisor Jordan Hiltunen explained “There’s so many factors at play, and what makes us as one community more prone to obesity than another, outside of years and years of data and analysis, that’s very hard to speculate on. One of the most common anecdotal bits of feedback that we get is that people find it a lot harder to incorporate regular daily exercise into their lives when we hit those epic winters. You don’t see that playing as big of a role in, for example, Vancouver.”