There’s no biological reason that women with live-in mates gain more weight, but researchers at the University of Queensland in Australia found that it happens. They think that the explanation is behavioral. In other words, women may change the way they eat after getting married or living with a partner. They perhaps eat bigger portions like their partners who are often bigger in size, or they may dine out more often.
So, does that mean you can officially blame your husband or partner for weight gain? Well, not exactly. Even if your spouse was an influence, you still made your choices. However, becoming more aware of how partners can influence dining may help curb weight gain.
While we’ve known for a long time that women gain more weight after giving birth, the new study focused on childless women who lived with a partner. According to the study, the weight gain over 10 years for the average 140-pound woman who had a baby with her partner was 20 pounds.
For women with partners, but no babies, the weight gain was 15 pounds. Women who were childless without partners gained only 11 pounds over 10 years. Half of the women in the study had at least one baby, and most of the weight gain occurred with the first baby, not with subsequent births.
Even after the researchers adjusted for various factors, such as smoking or exercise habits, the relationship between having a partner and gaining more weight still existed, as did the difference in weight gain between women who had babies and those who didn’t. All women in the study experienced a steady weight gain over the 10-year period.
The study was conducted with more than 6,000 Australian women, ending in 2006. Study results were published in The American Journal of Preventive Medicine.
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