There is a growing body of research, which suggests that many contemporary urban environments do not support healthy lifestyle choices and are implicated in the obesity pandemic. This paper reviews the evidence from this field in relation to theory, policy and practice, from three different disciplinary perspectives: urban design, geography and public health nutrition. In the UK, our development has been higher density and our urban form more varied, yet the paper concludes that it still may be making a contribution to our own obesity crisis. The dynamics of this, however, are highly complex and currently little understood.