The Link Between Couples and Weight Gain/Loss

A growing body of research has found a connection between couples and weight. Not only do women and men who live together tend to gain weight at similar times, they also are more likely to achieve better results if they tackle weight loss as a couple.

While it's true that many factors play a role in determining body weight, so does a shared living environment. There's a considerable amount of research showing that people who live together, particularly spouses, tend to have similar BMIs, and if that shared environment is conducive to weight gain, there is also an increased risk of obesity.For example, in a study that followed newly married spouses for two years, researchers found that the couples had similar BMIs and that marriage was associated with a weight gain.

The reasons why living together may predispose couples to excess weight seem to be twofold. First, marriage generally increases eating opportunities because married people tend to eat together, and they may eat more when dining together than if they were eating alone. Secondly, the newly married person may have less motivation to stay thin. In a single world, both men and women want to maximize their attractiveness to the opposite sex and that often includes having a healthy body weight. With marriage, the comfort of being in a stable relationship can lead to a reduced commitment to maintaining one's weight.

Losing weight as a couple works:The good news is there is also evidence that couples who join forces to lose weight are more successful than those who go it alone. For example, a study done in Australia investigated the effects of a 16-week lifestyle-modification program for new couples just moving in together. The researchers found that couples who changed their behaviors as a team had better success than those going it alone. The couples lost weight, improved their diet, exercised more and reduced their cholesterol levels. Most importantly, one year after the program ended, the couples had maintained their weight loss and improved their overall health.
Similar results have also been found in couples working to reduce their risk of disease and increase their activity. For example, in a study that involved almost 1,500 British couples participating in a lifestyle-intervention program to reduce the risk for heart disease, the researchers found that the people in the study who benefited the most had partners who had also benefited the most. Conversely, the men and women who showed little benefit from the program had partners who also showed little benefit.

Furthermore, in a study involving married people participating in an exercise program, the researchers found that the group where the married couples did the program together had significantly higher attendance and a dramatically lower dropout rate than the married people who participated alone. ⁷ In fact, only 6 percent of the married couples dropped out compared with 43 percent of the singles.

Bottom Line:Couples working to lose weight or keep the weight off together encourage each other's progress and help each other through the challenges that come with losing weight, improving the odds of weight-loss success and better health.

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