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Sociology Why love happiness makes couples very often thicker
Happiness in love, bad luck in weight? In any case, a study of the Max Weber Institute for Sociology at the University of Heidelberg comes to this conclusion. While singles tend to lose weight, couples in long-term relationships seem to be gaining weight. Why is that so? These and other exciting questions are answered in the article.
A happy love makes you fat, while the single life or crises in the partnership often accompanied by a significant weight loss. Professor Dr. Thomas Klein from the Max Weber Institute for Sociology of the University of Heidelberg in the context of a comprehensive investigation of the relationship between the relationship happiness and body weight.
Love makes happy couples fat, as a study found out. Picture: Kletr - fotolia The reason for the increase in weight in a happy partnership is apparently the lack of competitive pressure, reports the sociology professor in the publication of his study "Through Dick and Thin" on the influence of partnerships and partner market on body weight in the "Cologne Journal of Sociology and Social Psychology". Thus, the tendency to lose weight in crises in the partnership or singles to explain the competitive pressure, said the expert.
Competitive pressure is associated with lower body weight
In order to get to the bottom of the link between partner happiness and body weight, the sociology professor from Heidelberg conducted a representative survey with around 2,000 participants. At the same time, Prof. Dr. Klein noted that study participants who lived in a happy relationship often increased, while singles often decreased significantly.
Among other things, the scientist cited the competitive pressure on the partner market as the cause of this fundamentally different effect on body weight. The higher this turned out, the more the singles would have paid attention to their weight, in the hope that a good figure would improve their chances on the partner market. In order to stay attractive, the singles apparently cut back on their food intake significantly and also do more sports to maintain their weight. In the partnership, however, the pressure of competition is minimal and the couples can feast to the heart's content, according to the expert, according to many, significantly. However, this only applies until the first crises occur in the relationship, because then also decrease the people in the partnership usually again, explained the Heidelberg sociology professor.
Decrease in relationship crises: preparation for the partner market
As a reason for weight loss in relationship crises called Prof. Small on the one hand, that in unhappy relationships "less common meals" are taken. On the other hand, "problems can have a psychosomatic effect" and thus bring about a loss of weight, the expert emphasized. In addition, the slimming can also be interpreted as a kind of "preparation for the partner market", because with a good figure increase the chances of finding a partner, so the statement of the Heidelberg sociology professor. This assumption is also supported by the finding that weaker competitive pressure on the partner market, the weight differences between singles and couples are significantly lower, explained the expert.
As part of his study, the sociology professor from Heidelberg has not only analyzed the relationships between the partnership, the competitive pressure on the partner market and the body weight, but has also taken a closer look at why pairs often have a similar body size. According to the sociologist, this is not due to the eating habits or adaptation processes during the partnership, but to the choice of partner. For example, "Thin usually thin" would choose partners, whereas Thickness would rather be for thicker partners. (fp, sb)