The mayor's out there with his sweatshirt and whistle, trying to form the populace into an action line in light of gut-wrenching new evidence of our poor health habits.

Every little bit helps when six of 10 Indianapolis adults are overweight or obese, as the Marion County Health Department reported Thursday. It's no big surprise: Hoosiers generally, including children, are among the nation's most overweight.

The issue is, as they say, serious as a heart attack. Or diabetes. Or other form of early, preventable death. Thus we applaud Mayor Bart Peterson for not taking it lightly, even though he's got a lot on his plate.

Yet we confess to slender hopes for his FitCity initiative, also announced Thursday. The yearlong series of motivational events may move some folks to, well, move around more and eat less of the wrong foods. But the inertia he is shoving against is the result of individual decisions. We already know what we need to do.

The city can help in concrete ways -- by expanding and continuing to improve the trail system, establishing more bike paths, turning around IndyGo so that more residents pry themselves out of their cars and walk to and from bus stops. Using the bully pulpit to encourage more employers to offer pay incentives to workers who join health clubs and stop smoking would likewise carry more weight than monthly fun runs.