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Having fat pals can make you put on weight
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July 29, 2008
Do you have a big belly? Well, one of the key reasons behind the extra flab could be your friends, says new research, which found that spending time with fat people can increase a person's chances of becoming obese.

According to the study, which was conducted by University of Warwick researchers, people are influenced by the weight of those around them without being aware of it, leading to a 'spiral of obesity'.




The authors suggest that whether for reasons of job promotions or finding a mate it is someone's weight relative to others that matters. They show that overweight perceptions and dieting decisions are influenced by people's comparisons with others of the same age and gender.


Overall, the researchers believe that a person's "utility" (an economic term roughly meaning satisfaction levels) depends on

However, the authors also found a significant gender split.


Professor Andrew Oswald at the University of Warwick, one of the researchers, said "Consumption of calories has gone up but that does not tell us why people are eating more. Some have argued that obesity has been produced by cheaper food, but if fatness is a response to greater purchasing power, why do we routinely observe that rich people are thinner than poor people?"

He said: "A lot of research into obesity, which has emphasised sedentary lifestyles or human biology or fast-food, has missed the key point. Rising obesity needs to be thought of as a sociological phenomenon not a physiological one. People are influenced by relative comparisons, and norms have changed and are still changing."

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