Does Marriage Make You Gain Weight?

05/29/2013 04:24 EDT | Updated 05/29/2013 04:24 EDT
beautiful african couple eating ...

Why is it that all of the things we love make us gain weight? French fries, deep-fried chicken wings and a blissful marriage... wait, what?

According to a study out of Southern Methodist University in Dallas, the happier you are with your marriage, the more likely you are to pack on the pounds.

The researchers followed 169 young newlywed couples and looked at their marital satisfaction and weight gain over four years.

"Satisfaction is positively associated with weight gain," says Andrea Meltzer, lead researcher, to Health magazine. "Spouses who are more satisfied tend to gain more weight, and spouses who are less satisfied tend to gain less weight."

Other studies have linked marriage to much better health behaviours, such as, remembering to take medicine and going to the doctor.

"It's pretty widely accepted that marriage itself is associated with weight gain and divorce with weight loss," says Meltzer.

This hints that those couples who are unhappy, and even contemplating divorce, are losing more weight.

It seems "very plausible," says Charlotte Markey, an associate professor of psychology at Rutgers University, that less satisfied partners are watching their weight to get ready for their search for a new partner.


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