The magazine looked at the nation's 50 largest cities and ranked them with more than a dozen equally weighted categories, including total number of clubs/gyms/sporting goods stores; fruit and vegetable consumption; alcohol and tobacco use; air and water quality; and parks and recreation facilities.

Honolulu finished first, grabbing the highest marks for its climate, geography, air quality and recreation facilities, all of which it said contributed to keeping people outside and mobile.

Other pluses: the city has the highest ratio of municipal tennis courts in the country per capita and the second-highest ratio of public basketball courts. The rankings are contained in the magazine's February issue.

Mayor Jeremy Harris said he's pleased by the ranking and thinks some of the credit goes to the city's focus on improving and expanding the parks system.

"The fact that our citizens year-round can play soccer and baseball and all the rest is really instrumental to that healthy rating," Harris said. "We made it a point to really focus on our parks and recreational facilities — trying to provide kids a positive alternative to drugs and street crime."

Men's Fitness did err when it said the city has no restrictions on smoking in bars and restaurants. A ban went into effect last July restricting smoking in restaurants. But had the restrictions been included, that would only have added to Honolulu's top-ranked score.

The only negatives cited were a higher-than-average per capita number of fast-food restaurants and its lack of access to healthcare resources, as ranked by the Places Rated Almanac.

Honolulu was also in the top ranks of the fittest cities in the past two years, according to Men's Fitness, finishing seventh in 2002 and tied for second in 2001.