Gaining Weight to Fit In

Gaining Weight to Fit In

Research suggests that if your friends are overweight, there is a greater chance that you will become overweight, too. Purely by association, research reveals that when you are surrounded a certain behavior - healthy or unhealthy - your odds of indulging that behavior increase.

The study included research by scientists at the University of Warwick, Dartmouth College, and the University of Leuven. Their study focused on data from 27,000 people and led to a term, "imitative obesity" - or "keeping up with the Joneses" on calories, as reported to BBC News.

Why the weight?
When it comes to human interaction, permission plays in important role in how we live our lives. ”Is it ok if I order another beer or will these people think I’m a lush?” “Do I look good in this dress?” “Will my wife think these concert tickets are out of our budget?” And permission plays a key role in “imitative obesity” - when the people around you are fat, it sends a signal to your subconscious that it's ok for you to be fat. So is obesity more a sociological phenomenon, rather than a physiological, an environmental or an emotional one? Well, that depends on who you’re talking to.

Interviewed in the BBC News report, Professor Andrew Oswald at the University of Warwick, who worked on the study, said: "Consumption of calories has gone up but that does not tell us why people are eating more.” He said: "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 encourages people to think about obesity as a sociological phenomenon instead of a physiological one.

But Dr. David Haslam, clinical director of the National Obesity Forum, also interviewed by BBC, said: "It's a bit cheeky to pin it on sociological influences - there's more to it than that." And: "If you are surrounded by people, whether that's friends or within the family home, who are overweight, you are sharing the same environment where there is likely to be an abundance of the wrong kind of foods."

People want to fit in and be liked. This research may translate to other unhealthy and healthy behaviors. All your friends smoke? There is a greater risk that you will become a smoker. Are all your friends vegetarian runners? Your chances of opting to eat less meat and run more go up, purely by association. The underlying brain signal is: if they can do it, I can do it.

The Silver Lining...
Want to adopt a new, healthy behavior? You're more likely to stick with it if you participate with a friend. Weight Watchers encourages dieters to sign up for their program with a friend or family member because members who bring a companion to the diet program have on average, more success than dieters who go it alone.

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