Is Your Partner Making You Fat?

A new study says newly married couples gain an average of 16 pounds between them in the first two years of marriage. So, who’s to blame? The editors of Men’s Health and Women’s Health hold a grudge match on the pudge facts.

The Male Perspective

Weight loss experts are fond of saying that being fat is a choice—that our daily actions, from what we select for breakfast to whether we make time to exercise—ultimately determine our belt size. If only it were that simple. Researchers at the University of Minnesota, for example, found that both men and women gain up to 8 pounds in their first two years of marriage. And the white coats at Regis University, in Colorado, concluded in a recent issue of the journal Obesity that people are less likely to exercise and eat healthy—and more likely to pack on extra pounds—if their friend network (read: wives and girlfriends) tend toward the portlier side.

What’s going on here? Well, there’s the excuse that you can publicly acknowledge: As a single guy, you could go to the gym whenever you wanted—before work, after work, in the middle of the night if the mood struck you. No one was waiting at home quietly fuming because the lasagne/babysitter/chimney flashing is burnt/late again/leaking into the playroom. And there’s the excuse that you can never, ever speak aloud: You’re no longer competing in the cage match of death that is the dating world, and as such, it’s simply not as imperative that you stay in fighting trim. (And there’s the third excuse, which is that two beers and an extra helping of guac and chips is the only thing that gets you through a night of “Grey’s Anatomy” and “Private Practice.”) Click here to continue.

The Female Perspective

For better or for worse, in good times and bad, and especially through thick and thin, couples share everything—and not always for their mutual benefit. Researchers at the Human Nutrition Research Centre at England’s Newcastle University, for example, found that women tend to eat more fatty foods, and exercise less often, after moving in with a male partner—findings reflected in recent research that shows that fat can indeed be contagious. Add to this the fact that women burn about 26 percent fewer calories per day than guys do, and you’ve got a potent recipe for piling on pounds. What’s worse, your partner might be more than partly to blame for your newly acquired bad habits.

Studies show that when you shape up, your better half suddenly has a choice: undertake a transformation of his own, or inadvertently sabotage yours by spiking your diet with high calorie foods. Many times he’ll choose the latter, often subconsciously. After all, the better you look, the more other men will check you out, and the more he’ll be reminded of his own corporeal excesses. Such sabotage can also be a sign that he misses your old life—the one where you ate deliciously unhealthy foods together and had fun doing so. Click here to continue.