Does who you hang out with really define your weight gain or loss?

I couldn't believe my eyes when read the headline in the San Diego Union Tribune "Study links obesity to friends" For years I have been touting this to many of my clients. How many times have I had a client struggle with weight loss thanks to a saboteur husband or wife! How many couples do you know who look slim and healthy on their wedding day, and put on 25 pounds by their first anniversary?

So here we go! UC San Diego, and Harvard researchers both point the finger at the influencing spouses family members and close friends of overweight individuals. Typically these culprits are also overweight and think that such a body shape and the lifestyle behaviors contributing to it are OK! The result? You are more likely to gain pounds within a couple of years of hanging out with these types. Researchers also believe friends provide more influence than genetics. Perhaps this is because friends can affect one another food and exercise choices by setting a standard what is normal.

Likewise the reverse is true: If you friends or family become thin you are more likely to loose weight as well. Dr. James Fowler the study author at UC San Diego says the message is clear. "If you want to be successful in getting your weight down, then get as many of the people to whom you are socially connected involved because there will be a reinforcing effect between your behavior and theirs"

The study was quite credible, based on a 12,000 sampling of individuals in Framingham Mass. between the years 1971 and 2003 This landmark study was published in in the July edition of the New England Journal of Medicine.

The report said a persons chance of becoming obese increases by 57 percent if he or she has a friend who became obese, 40 percent if a sibling became obese and 37 percent if a spouse became obese.

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