On average, couples weigh more contraction promotes weight gain

The weight of love: When couples contract, they increase

Studies have shown that married people usually live longer than singles. On the other hand, couples are often fatter than singles. So far it has been unclear how changes in relationships affect body weight and when couples grow the most. Researchers have now discovered that it is primarily contraction that leads to weight gain.

Partners have an influence on their own health

The fact that a partnership can also affect physical well-being has already been proven in various scientific studies. Researchers at University College London, for example, report that many people live healthier lives thanks to their partners, partly because they have unhealthy behaviors. And US scientists have found that living together in a marriage improves one's health because the partners have lower levels of the stress hormone cortisol. However, on average, couples weigh more than singles. In a German study could now be shown what leads to the weight gain.

Couples usually live healthier and longer than single people. However, on average they weigh more than singles. Researchers have now discovered why this is so. (Image: Africa Studio / fotolia.com)

Not the marriage leads to weight gain

Couples have a higher body weight than singles - with or without a marriage certificate. But unlike what is often thought, it is less the marriage than the first contraction that leads to weight gain.

This is what scientists from the Max Planck Institute for Human Development, the University of Mannheim, the University of Leipzig and the German Institute for Economic Research have found.

To get their results, the researchers evaluated data from 20,950 individuals aged between 19 and 100 years over a 16-year period.

The results of the study were published in the journal "Health Psychology".

Change in everyday eating habits

The researchers found that couples contracted about twice as much as couples in the first four years of marriage.

This effect persists even when important factors such as age, childbirth, sports, smoking, health or stress are calculated out.

"This means that this weight gain is primarily related to the relationship change," explains Ralph Hertwig, co-author of the study and director at the Max Planck Institute for Human Development, in a statement.

"A change in relationship status often means a change in everyday eating habits - such as having breakfast together, which perhaps would not have happened on its own or would have been more modest. In society, you usually eat more and thus consume more calories, "says the expert.

In divorces, both sexes increase the most

When couples break up, the body mass index (BMI), which sets a person's body weight in relation to their height, decreases again to the point of contracting for women and men.

As stated in the communication, this corresponds to the prediction of the so-called marriage market hypothesis, according to which people are looking for a lower body weight on dating, as this is associated with more attractiveness.

Interestingly, however, both sexes are growing the most in divorce following separations. One possible explanation for this is that many people - especially men - are in a new relationship with the divorce.

"With regard to weight gain, contracting and divorce are important windows for prevention," said Jutta Mata, professor of health psychology at the University of Mannheim and associate scientist at the Max Planck Institute for Human Development.

"So far, social influences - which include relationship changes - were hardly considered in the development of obesity. Instead, individual factors such as knowledge or willpower were discussed, "explains the researcher.

"Our findings show that an unmarried man who is slightly overweight before contracting, on average, increases about 7.5 kilograms, after having lived together for at least four years without a marriage certificate, was married, separated and divorced. This increases his general mortality risk by up to 13 percent. "(Ad)