Nicholas Bakalar reports: Study Says Women With Mate Get Heavier. The Australian study found that:
After adjusting for other variables, the 10-year weight gain for an average 140-pound woman was 20 pounds if she had a baby and a partner, 15 if she had a partner but no baby, and only 11 pounds if she was childless with no partner. The number of women with a baby but no partner was too small to draw statistically significant conclusions.
There is no reason to believe that having a partner causes metabolic changes, so the weight gain among childless women with partners was almost surely caused by altered behavior....
The only explanation offered in the article is pretty weak, women respond passively to their environment:
Maureen A. Murtaugh, an associate professor of epidemiology at the University of Utah who has published widely on weight gain in women. Perhaps, she suggested, a more active social life may help explain why women with partners gain more weight.
“Think of going to a restaurant,” Dr. Murtaugh said. “They serve a 6-foot man the same amount as they serve me, even though I’m 5 feet 5 inches and 60 pounds lighter.”
Uri Gneezy and Jason Shafrin have another explanation (Why Does Getting Married Make You Fat? Incentives and Appearance Maintenance):
Married individuals weigh more on average than non-married individuals. We suggest that exiting the dating market decreases one’s incentive to maintain their appearance and leads to an increase in body weight. We hypothesize that it is most difficult for individuals to exit a traditional marriage, and easiest for individuals to exit if the couple is cohabitating but not legally married....
So, people in a traditional marriage have more security in the relationship, and invest less in appearance as insurance against a return to the dating market.
Using a 14-year panel data set [from the Netherlands], we test whether or not the ease of exiting a domestic relationship affects weight gain. For men, we find that the type of domestic relationship has little impact on weight gain. For women, however, marriage leads to a 2.4 kg weight gain compared to cohabitating.
This is a weight gain of about five pounds. In this explanation, men and women are purposeful agents adjusting their behavior in response to changing opportunity costs.
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Posted by: Todd29 | January 18, 2010 at 02:55 AM
I agree with nightfall... so many brides go on ridiculous diets to lose 10-20 lbs before the big day that it prolly goes RIGHT back on afterwards...I know I've seen stories about women again weight after marriage.Thanks for great article...
Posted by: cheap r4i software | February 04, 2010 at 01:54 AM
This is only a myth. And the answer is that after the wedding you have a more quiet and static life than before.
Posted by: Clothing Wedding | July 03, 2010 at 07:14 AM
'This is only a myth. And the answer is that after the wedding you have a more quiet and static life than before.'
I think many people get comfortable after they get married, hence how they put on weight so quickly.
Thanks,
Tom
http://www.fatlosstoptips.com/drop-a-dress-size/
Posted by: Drop a Dress Size | October 14, 2010 at 05:36 AM
Fat eating and no movement does get you FAT.
It all depends on yourself :)
Posted by: African woman | August 07, 2011 at 03:20 AM