The Dark Truth Of America’s Skinniest City

42% of adults Across America are obese which is triple the rate of the city I'm currently in Boulder Colorado America's skinniest city which sounds great but there's a dark side there's documentaries on all kinds of awful the people who started this people seem more smug into themselves I have 11year old daughter I want to expose her what reality is because it's not reality but before we get into all that I wanted to get a sense of the community welcome to Boulder everybody I can practically smell Lululemon in the air so in America people probably have

like four delivery drivers per person but in Boulder people have four bikes per person on average it's actually considered the bike racing capital of the United States so because of that everything we're going to be doing today we're going to be biking around because I think we should just try to fit in if you don't bike ride here and you take a car I feel like people look at you like you're a hunter at a vegan Festival so we're in a bike find something to eat now I'm not the best biker um I'm might to

get pulled over for a Bui [Music] I can do it now I'm not sure why I thought the highway here would look like a tour to France race but I was sadly mistaken it actually felt like a typical City where cars just hate bikers four bikes my ass per person I'm the only one out here what the heck fake news [Music] bro First Impressions at Boulder is I'm getting a little bit of cult vibes nothing like serious though more like just like veganism and Crossfit um but overall it's really beautiful tons of skinny people I've

been seeing it's like a fitness expo came and then decided to stay all year round it's pretty crazy and on the bike ride here we passed like tons of healthy restaurants so we ended up at a place called just be kitchen and really cool guy Fier from Triple D has been here and we and we know guy Fier does not eat very healthy so the fact that he came here it must be not just like Bland boring healthy food good healthy food the dessert section is called just be naughty like I don't know if mentally

that's like necessarily like the best thing to do like are they supposed to make us feel bad about ourselves so we don't get it I'm going to get it anyway so I go and I look at the Brownie and the brownie is made with almond flour that's like renting and engagement ring like just commit bro like if you're going to make desserts let's make desserts let's let's not try to make it all healthy but I got it anyway of course and we're going to see how a healthy brownie tastes I think I spoke too soon

this is like a brownie that I think I would get in Texas look at this thing have you guys SE Matilda Bruce eating that chocolate cake this is literally what it's reminding me of I can taste the health it's good though but that's actually really good it's actually really good we're going to be biking a lot today doing a lot of activities so there's not even going to count when I got my food it looks so good I just had to dance it's what I do look at these things man oh healthy french toast Bliss

sliders so it's kind of like Boulder's version of the mg griddle let's see if Ronald has something to worry about here coconut flakes on it are you putting the coffee over here yes wow I really appreciate that their idea of healthy food is not like low calorie just like egg whites chemicals it's like Whole Foods good ingredients no seed oils just really focusing on quality so so good I absolutely housed this meal it's pretty impressive to see just how accommodating this restaurant is with dietary restrictions offering options for literally everybody we have like that much

left I'm tempted to leave it because being in America skinniest city I don't know if it's bad etiquette to clean everything off my plate no I got to eat it I hit the road again passing pretty much only healthy organic looking restaurants something pretty crazy to note is that there's over 60 public parks in Boulder and just two McDonald's which is probably pretty rare in America we made it to the North Boulder Park look how beautiful this is and this is just one of many parks here and hopefully unrelated there's apparently like 17 to 20,000

Bears here but I think the Bears should know that there's probably not a lot of meat on the people's bones to make it worth their while to attack look at this this is just just a prime spot for a picnic but I don't think they do much of that here usually at parks if they have a calisthenics facility if you can even call it that it looks like a breeding ground for tetanus or a great place for a drug deal but then you have this holy it's like the nicest cisic Parks I've ever seen in

my entire [Music] life I must say that this is actually like a pretty Advanced looking calisthenics I think that usually in Parks they make it for like the average person and if the average person in Boulder could be doing like ring pull-ups and like ring rows it's pretty impressive so we're going to do a calenic workout today oh my God this looks incredibly hard 0 seconds up into Savage 3 minutes to hold that Bing Arians are crazy do you call them bulgarians I'm calling them [Music] bulgarians how'd you get here method of transportation I walked

here you okay do you know anything about Boulder being America skinia City you know you hear things here and there about it like would you be surprised to hear if there's a lot of like people who are on the bigger side who have to move here for like work or whatever it may be and they're actually kind of scared and nervous that they're not going to be accepted this is surprisingly true there is many Reddit forums of people showing concerns of moving to Boulder thinking they won't fit in I definitely could see that there's like

a pressure um to be more fit here just cuz everybody is I don't think they should be afraid cuz I I don't I don't I don't make any judgments I feel like if they people might move here they might be surrounded a community where people are more fit and it might Inspire them to start doing things yeah okay I'm from California and back where I was from everyone would drive it wasn't really that popular to just go outside and here a lot of my friends are like let's go for a hike let's go to the

park you don't just like go home sit down play Xbox chill drink we skate uh hang out go to the creek hikes I guess like the pelaton like the Xbox for kids here yeah yeah how old are you guys uh 18 18 I'm 17 17 yeah being so young do you guys feel like you have a pressure to be skinnier or like be look a certain way or yeah a little bit Yeah I think more with adults like adults here you're doing more than most of the adult another place in the country how many pffs

think you got I think I got like maybe 15 15 yeah and how old did you say you were again 18 that's legit Man 3 2 1 [Music] go this is czy dud that's like way harder than a regular one too right yeah push-ups push-ups I ah [ __ ] I can seeo don't bring the excuses man no I'm going run it I'm going run it but how many think you got I might have Play 3 two one [Music] go good job dude this guy catfish me 15 what the heck we like 40 man good

[ __ ] man sir good [ __ ] is Boulder a cult a cult yeah yeah a little bit Yeah I ended up playing basketball with a bunch of high schoolers bad decision on their part I'm just kidding I actually suck they've already been playing for hours I can't even imagine the calary burn but it's just nice to see that their preferred method of hanging out is just being outside and being active which I think is rare in most places oh my God I'm sorry guys I'm good at basketball you're just be nice man I

don't know if it's like related to like health and fitness but people in Boulder ever since we arrived are so damn nice and welcoming and I'm wondering if that's to do with just like the outdoors the scenery like the nature and you're just generally just more happy I was impressed with the young kids but I was even more impressed when I saw this hunk of a man doing some cisic on a mini tree setup how old are you if you don't mind me asking uh 63 63 you're shredded Boulder is known to be America skinia

city does that surprise you at all I don't want to believe that no in this city we have just one big Park we don't have other Parks like Denver have M because this city cannot grow anymore right right I learned really young if I don't do things for myself nobody's going to do for me and that my body is a temple we used to have three clubs here now we just have one private club two clubs are gone how many do you have two one electric and there's one okay you know the the average person

here has four bikes per person yes but because it's hard not to ride your bike I work at University and I ride my bike everywhere why I'm going with my car I was work a in car in the mountains I bought the electric bike to go up there you feel guilty driving a car I feel guilty driving a car why do I need a car do you think there's a pressure for people to look a certain way in terms of like being skinnier like more fit not for men for women okay to to be skinny

not not so much for men why do you think that I do not know if I'm it's appropriate for me to say that H I don't even know if I should say that they they they want women to certain like that they are in puberty you know what I meant oh okay right last question for you yeah is Boulder a cult yes or no a cult yeah uh I I would not say that no yeah yeah I'm not trying to protect probably can be but I don't think so yeah nobody ever said anything it's because

you're part of the cult you don't see it I don't think I've ever seen somebody bring their own setup and attach it to a tree in my entire life why cuz I've never been to Boulder usually when a place is healthier and fitter typically means there's more money around so it's no surprise Boulder is one of the wealthier towns in the United States and I guess that makes sense why the largest Whole Foods in the nation is here this Whole Foods is 77,000 ft practically double the average size Whole Foods in any other state I'm

getting my 10,000 steps just just walking Whole Foods I've never seen Peppers so nicely stacked you're doing a good job man damn this is officially my first stop if a zombie apocalypse ever hits because I'm just I'm in shock it's pretty much just missing a McDonald's play place and then it's it's it's heaven so many foods I didn't even know existed are here it's like a healthy poptart wild berry aai now this table isn't just hot it is sexy I don't think I've ever seen a hot table section this big in my entire life oh

[Music] my I'm geeking out so hard right now when you're surrounded by it it's pretty easy to live that really healthy lifestyle kids are growing up being surrounded by biking rock climbing so they adopt that at a very young age which just brings healthy habits from an early age which is amazing it's crazy the pizza is only 10 calories with Boulder being such a big foodie town I wanted to try some of the top rated Health spots starting at flower child which is such an innocent cute name but it has a menu that could definitely

get me in trouble I got the cauliflower Rosado which was actually incredible like it was making me act up then I went to this place called Thrive I think I got a contact high just walking in the Wi-Fi password is definitely love and peace I got the elevated cheesecake which I was hoping was a THC reference but it wasn't it was good though vegan but good and lastly I checked out wander to get a local nutmilk and it was absolutely [Music] scrumptious you getting any weird looks EA that ice cream out here um no actually

people are very very cool very non-judgmental really yeah okay let's be careful out there first ice cream place I've seen probably have like kale cones seaweed sprinkles stuff like that I feel like the best place to have an affair in Boulder would be like a place like this or like the McDonald's because you would no one would ever see you like no one would ever suspect to can go there see a lot of healthy restaurants a lot of spiritual places and very interestingly not one person smoking at all which is kind of weird because people

smoke and they end up being skinny but there's no one smoking which is super strange so you said you're from Australia yes you've been here for the past 3 weeks yes so you have a good kind of idea of the city and the people yes would you be surprised to hear that it's the skinniest city in America uh no what do you think is the biggest contributing factor to that you think I think all the nature everyone runs I mean I've literally been here for an hour I just bought a new pair of running shoes

I don't know I feel like people like look up to like people who are like big and strong like you you feel me there's always people in the trail it's always very busy all the clothing stores here are around hiking walking running a lot of the things like outside on clearance they're all like larges extra larges and it's like oh okay it's really surprising those are being bought even the Ben and Jerry like you get this little thing Ben and Jerry really yeah a lot of people say that like of the bigger size they're like

afraid to move here cuz they think they're going to get judged could you guys see that not really no I don't think so yeah I'd hope not why do you think that people have such a hard time moving here cuz they do I think the people here are really nice so I would I can't see that I could honestly see that being an issue really I think so yeah because people when people here are in their Fitness they it seems like they would put other people down honestly seriously M I do think that the people

here are generally like pretty friendly and accepting they're Ruder here I feel like really yeah you probably would have a much harder time making friends here because people seem more smug into themselves there's sort of a difference between like the way that people actually like will treat you and perceive you versus like the way that you might feel about it 100% um from a girl's perspective if you're were to move to Boulder and you're like on the heavier side would you find that to be intimidating yeah yeah we literally just met like a two-time Olympian

who moved to Boulder to be in better shape yeah like that's both of us have obviously like struggled with body image issues in the past especially being around like an environment where like there are a lot of thin people around you it can definitely be intimidating while on the surface everyone in Boulder is healthy happy and fit it's not all sunshine and rainbows people are suffering in silence Boulder actually leads the nation in Ed rates with University of Colorado Boulder reporting nearly triple the national average of Ed among women I would look at myself in

the mirror and I would think I was the most ugliest person in the world I was unlovable unable to um ever be considered beautiful and it was so intense that the thoughts in my head they were just berading me over and over again I would wake up and I'd put myself on a spin bike and I would spend for an hour or two making sure I'd have enough debt of calories so I could go have a breakfast my breakfast would consist of an apple and maybe a handful of nuts and typically that is what I

survived on the entire day I was curious to see if some of the locals were aware of this situation oh no that's surprising really yeah I would say it's a little bit surprising to me I think probably every girl you will say they have eating disorder whether it's diagnosed or not really yeah I have to agree a little bit of that really people women that I know that's related to us that they barely eat I know this for sure literally just what that Olympian was talking about was she was saying like she used to have

it difficult like like really she said that as she learned in her life she's like she's never going to skip a meal she's never going to skip lunch she's never going to want to be skinny or whatever it is and her exia liia all that stuff right yeah it's definitely here an outdoors healthy lifestyle it's surprising that it's there's an unhealthy element to it why do you think that why do you think that would be the case I just feel I feel I think a lot of people know that it's considered like a healthier place

and they thinking so much about I got to get in shape I got to run I got to do this I got to do that and then they miss so it starts as a good habit but then ends up getting kind of bad cuz you're taking too far probably like I find myself not eating sometimes but that's just really what about you I mean yeah for sure I mean I like struggle with my weight all the time but not on a like on purpose in order to better understand this topic and the mentality behind it

I met up with professional in the field Brooke Alexander so what is it that you exactly do I work with people who are in recovery from eating disorders I offer trauma education groups nervous system education groups and also uh more embodiment groups that focus on returning to the body from a place of gentleness oh wow that's a lot yeah oh my God I've seen online a few times the the concept of like the Bolder body people feeling they have to look a certain way which then lead leads into Ed a lot of the people we

talk to today it was kind of like a very like definitive like oh no like we don't we don't see that here yeah yeah is it because it's is it something that's very easy to hide I know a lot of people in Boulder and in Colorado who are actively struggling with eating disorders and also who are in recovery or have recovered I think a lot of people just lack the language and the awareness that something is disordered maybe that's OV ex exercising or restricting food or just being really really um hypercritical of certain parts of

our bodies when we see a large portion at least in our Western culture of people doing that it feels normal I like to go Denver every week weekends to go back to reality you know yeah because I have an 11y old daughter I want to expose her what reality is because this is kind of B there is an island it's not kind of all the reality you know MH I struggled greatly with needing disorder growing up as a kid and and it was never something that I actually even realized or it could even even comprehend

that I I had one until like the very end when people were like okay there's something wrong people can struggle with an eating disorder for decades before actually realizing oh wow this is something I can ask for help with I've worked with clients who were in their 70s too typically in the eating disorder programs it tends to be mostly female there's a certain type of stigma for men with eating disorders age wise teenagers are struggling immensely our programs are always full it breaks my heart and sometimes it's uh really well-intentioned parents that have this idea

of what it means to be healthy so you're saying a lot of people feel like they're doing the right thing and it ends up kind of spiraling down the wrong way is that kind of what atypical anorexia is what makes it atypical is that the person who is demonstrating those symptoms is not low body weight so you can't necessarily see it on the scale of what it means to be underweight they don't quite match it and so it's very easy to go under the radar have you heard of atypical anorexia yes I as a matter

of fact I I I heard about that uh today today yeah because I'm learning Italian but that's not a thing just in us it's a thing all over the world yeah but it's particularly a high rate that here in Boulder yes I heard that too and like I said I have a dark and uh this does not happen in our house but we believe that one of her friends it's facing this kind of thing but the parents is to didn't realize that and she's only 11 years old yes wow when I was in college I

was binge drinking which soon led to binge eating which soon led to purging bulimia and for a long time I was like oh it's just because I'm drinking that's the issue and when I first told my therapist I was sent to a psych psychiatrist and instead of looking for the deeper rooted issue of why are you binging why are you numbing with alcohol it was more so just layering a a Band-Aid on the issue of giving me medication prescribing me Aderall so that I wouldn't binge so that I wouldn't Purge and it never got to

the deeper issue when I was at my lowest weight and fit into the beauty ideal I was the sickest I've ever been is when I was receiving all of the wow you look so healthy the praise and it encourages you to go farther exactly it can be a really hard thing to ask for help and when I did and I was in a space where people were openly talking about their struggles it was a game Cher for me to have this moment of oh I'm not alone in this I love going to group events in

New cities to get to know the locals inside and out but I've never actually gone to a group event outside in a park for something like physically active like this they have something called a Cruiser ride every every single Thursday it's been a tradition every week since 1992 before I was born so the theme today is the Olympics and look at this turnout in a lot of places in order to like socialize with your friends and and family that usually involves food alcohol stuff like that it's really nice that they can people can like socialize

without those things and just do something Physically [Applause] Active I think you won best dress today man listen I love it I absolutely love it I'm all about the themes I heard they have a lingerie theme here that's when we don't bring the cameras out yeah there's a nude night there's a couple good ones I bet you K that how many bikes do you own 25 25 bikes people were actually incredibly passionate about the theme and some people had some of the most insane bike setups I've ever seen in my life that's crazy I literally

think I'm about to do like a Mario Kart race I should get bananas to just throw them you know I also feel like I'm getting kind of high there's a lot of drugs you building your B and here I am on a city bike I'm 74 I can't pedal anymore and I I mean you're you have the best looking bike of the bunch my leg is numb so I I don't have any balance anymore I can't ride I used to ride mountain bike all the time oh did you okay Michael is Conor oh oh yeah

oh yeah it's not [Music] real here we go I feel like I just got dropped into a new game on legendary mode I don't know what to do oh my look at that bike bro what the I was having a blast I honestly can't remember the last time I had this much fun Vibes are Immaculate music is good this guy is popping a wheelie and I was actually so concerned for him but good thing he's wearing a [Applause] helmet everybody say Cruiser I can't everybody say Cruiser 3 two that's a sick bike dude thank you

yo Von say what's up what's up he's my new friend hey you guys must follow my Instagram log I will follow you Von you want to know it's pretty crazy the cars here absolutely love us it makes no sense they're honking for us they're smiling if I was a car and I saw this I would be pissed I'm getting crazy Mad Max Vibes right [Music] now I can totally see myself looking forward to something like this every single week and if you're single this is a great place to pick someone up I'm just saying post

bike ride I finished off the day with a chicken sandwich and a side of beets only in Boulder