Article: women with mates get heavier

[MatureDJ]

This is something we've always known - that women, upon securing a mate, no longer feel the need to stay attractive, and therefore lard up.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/05/health/05weight.html?em

It is widely known that women tend to gain weight after giving birth, but now a large study has found evidence that even among childless women, those who live with a mate put on more pounds than those who live without one.

The differences, the scientists found, were stark.

After adjusting for other variables, the 10-year weight gain for an average 140-pound woman was 20 pounds if she had a baby and a partner, 15 if she had a partner but no baby, and only 11 pounds if she was childless with no partner. The number of women with a baby but no partner was too small to draw statistically significant conclusions.

There is no reason to believe that having a partner causes metabolic changes, so the weight gain among childless women with partners was almost surely caused by altered behavior. Moreover, there was a steady weight gain among all women over the 10 years of the study.

This does not explain the still larger weight gain in women who became pregnant. The lead author, Annette J. Dobson, a professor of biostatistics at the University of Queensland in Australia, suggested that physiological changes might be at work.

“Women’s bodies may adjust to the increased weight associated with having a baby,” Dr. Dobson said. “There may be a metabolic adjustment that goes on when women are pregnant that is hard to reverse. This would be more consistent with our findings than any other explanation.”

The study covered more than 6,000 Australian women over a 10-year period ending in 2006.

At the start, the women ranged in age from 18 to 23. Each woman periodically completed a survey with more than 300 questions about weight and height, age, level of education, physical activity, smoking status, alcohol consumption, medications used and a wide range of other health and health care issues.

By the end of the study, published in the January issue of The American Journal of Preventive Medicine, more than half the women had college degrees, about three-quarters had partners and half had had at least one baby. Almost all of the weight gain happened with the first baby; subsequent births had little effect.

Also by the end of the study period, there were fewer smokers and risky drinkers than at the beginning, more women who exercised less and a larger proportion without paid employment.

But even after adjusting for all of these factors and more, the differences in weight gain among women with and without babies, and among women with and without partners, remained.

Despite the study’s limitations — weight was self-reported, for example, and the sample size diminished over time because people dropped out — other experts found the results valuable.

“It’s interesting and brings out some important points,” said Maureen A. Murtaugh, an associate professor of epidemiology at the University of Utah who has published widely on weight gain in women. Perhaps, she suggested, a more active social life may help explain why women with partners gain more weight.

“Think of going to a restaurant,” Dr. Murtaugh said. “They serve a 6-foot man the same amount as they serve me, even though I’m 5 feet 5 inches and 60 pounds lighter.”

The study included only women, but the researchers cited one earlier study that showed an increase in obesity among men who had children, adding further evidence that social and behavioral factors are part of the explanation.

Dr. Dobson said the finding of weight gain among all the women, with families or without, was troubling.

“This is a general health concern,” she said. “Getting married or moving in with a partner and having a baby are events that trigger even further weight gain.

“From a prevention point of view, one can look at these as particular times when women need to be especially careful.”

 

[Trader]

“It’s interesting and brings out some important points,” said Maureen A. Murtaugh, an associate professor of epidemiology at the University of Utah who has published widely on weight gain in women. Perhaps, she suggested, a more active social life may help explain why women with partners gain more weight.

“Think of going to a restaurant,” Dr. Murtaugh said. “They serve a 6-foot man the same amount as they serve me, even though I’m 5 feet 5 inches and 60 pounds lighter.”

So the argument is that a girl's social life - which is defined as going out to eat more often, increases as she enters into a long-term relationship. I would argue it is the opposite. When a girl settles down into a long-term relationship, you move in with the guy and you start eating at home.

This is something we've always known - that women, upon securing a mate, no longer feel the need to stay attractive, and therefore lard up.

What's interesting is that no one in the mainstream media will even consider un-PC explanations. It probably would hurt the ego of girls too much if we were to say that the overriding factor is that girls 'let it go' when they have their man.

No one wants to admit that most of what girls do is to either get a man, or get other girls jealous of them.

It probably would destroy their notion that girls are independent thinkers.

 

[bigjohnson]

A gain of 15 vs 11 pounds isn't that much difference really is it? I'm not seeing the dramatic issue here.

 

[jophil28]

A gain of 15 vs 11 pounds isn't that much difference really is it? I'm not seeing the dramatic issue here.

There is none.
The humanities people at U of Q (of which I am an alumnus) love conducting these meaningless 'studies' to justify their applications for endless grants.. "Women's Studies" are big over there.

Perhaps the leftie feminist 'scientists' have finally uncovered one testable negative consequence of a woman bonding and breeding with a man - she gets a little fatter !

 

[zekko]

So the argument is that a girl's social life - which is defined as going out to eat more often, increases as she enters into a long-term relationship. I would argue it is the opposite. When a girl settles down into a long-term relationship, you move in with the guy and you start eating at home.

I think I would be more likely to spend money on eating out a good restaurant with a LTR myself. She has proven herself worthy of the extra expense. Plus, a lot of couples like to go on out of town trips and usually grab a bite to eat while they're out.

A gain of 15 vs 11 pounds isn't that much difference really is it? I'm not seeing the dramatic issue here.

Yeah, I agree, it doesn't seem like that big of a difference. I would also guess that a guy tends to gain more weight in a LTR relationship too.

 

[synergy1]

the conclusion is that women get bigger in a relationship, not that the relationship is the root cause. By stating that the average weight gain is 11 lbs without a long term relationship, they pretty much shot that hypothesis in the foot.

 

[Teflon_Mcgee]

I know the majority of me and my wife's "outings" revolve around food.

DINNER and a movie, DINNER and a play, LUNCH date, LUNCH in the park, etc...

But, I, as a man, go to the gym daily and expect my wife to do the same (in fact we go together.)

I also set a healthy diet that both me and my wife live by 95% of the time.

How many men who's wifes just keep gaining weight even go to the gym themselves?

I really don't understand what is so hard about telling your wife/LTR to get to the gym and put down the donut.

Once again, this is an example of the man failing to set the example and not enforcing reasonable expectations of his wife.

 

[zekko]

I really don't understand what is so hard about telling your wife/LTR to get to the gym and put down the donut.

As bigjohnson pointed out, it's only a four pound difference so it's probably not that big a deal.

I'm actually a little sympathetic to the struggles women have with weight, especially once they get older. But yeah I don't condone anyone letting themselves go. Women don't have the muscle mass that guys do so they don't burn off the calories as fast, plus they're smaller so they can't eat as much.

You twenty-somethings don't realize it, but your metabolism goes down as you get older, even if you work out a lot. At that point it really comes down to diet more than anything else. And you can't get away with eating the same things you could 10-20 years ago. So it isn't as simple as saying why don't they just get in the gym. It's hard for me as a man to keep the weight down so I can just imagine how much harder it is for women. Still, a slim female body is a beautiful thing, so the extra effort is worth it.

 

[Jitterbug]

Having seen older men and women of all ages work out at the gym, I'd say that the majority are only there so that they don't feel guilty. They do crappy exercises, cheat on their forms & techniques and would rather read a magazine, watch cable TV, call their friends or chat with each other than actually work out a real sweat. In fact, some of them (all women) make sure they don't sweat at all because it's, like, gross & stuff.

 

[bigjohnson]

I guess you have to define older for me, I know plenty of guys my age at the gym and we work like madmen. The article is discussing fairly young women.

 

[Jitterbug]

40+ for men.

Women of all ages - young and old.

There are always some hardcore gyms where everyone works hard, and in every gym, there are a handful of hardcore folks, but in most gyms, the majority are lazy slobs.

I go to a uni gym, which is a little better than average as it's populated by athletes, but there are still plenty of young women who are like what I described. When I used to go to a franchise gym, it was chock full of them. Quite hilarious to watch!

 

[mrRuckus]

As bigjohnson pointed out, it's only a four pound difference so it's probably not that big a deal.

I'm actually a little sympathetic to the struggles women have with weight, especially once they get older. But yeah I don't condone anyone letting themselves go.

You twenty-somethings don't realize it, but your metabolism goes down as you get older, even if you work out a lot. At that point it really comes down to diet more than anything else. And you can't get away with eating the same things you could 10-20 years ago. So it isn't as simple as saying why don't they just get in the gym. It's hard for me as a man to keep the weight down so I can just imagine how much harder it is for women. Still, a slim female body is a beautiful thing, so the extra effort is worth it.

In a properly functioning body, as metabolism drops so does hunger.

If you are stuffing yourself with boatloads of simple sugars that your body was never evolved to handle in bulk and for long periods and are short circuiting the system that regulates hunger, that's on you.


http://wholehealthsource.blogspot.com/2009/12/body-fat-setpoint.html

However, when researchers compared older and younger subjects doing the same amount of exercise and/or eating the same number of calories, there was no difference in basal metabolic rate.

The research now clearly shows that the largest proportion of this drop in metabolic rate is NOT due to the natural ageing process (5). It is in fact due to the loss of muscle.

The two major causes of muscle loss are:

1) Dieting

...

2) The DUIYLI (Don't Use It You Lose It) Syndrome.

Women don't have the muscle mass that guys do so they don't burn off the calories as fast, plus they're smaller so they can't eat as much.

Plus!? How is that a plus for them gaining weight?





The reality of most of this is that the majority of the populace is fairly ignorant on exercise and nutrition topics. Hell, even doctors are. Jogging really isn't some great exercise like the world seems to think and "health bars" are pretty much garbage and "protein bars" usually have anything but good proteins. And the vast majority of calorie restricting to lose weight is nonsense, but is still the method everyone tries to use.

But whatever, everyone is just as responsible for educating themselves and maintaining their bodies as they are for learning about women and applying that knowledge to their lives. It's *really* not that difficult if you bother researching it. I used to not exercise, and I used to eat absolute filth. I stopped and largely don't even want bad foods anymore as i adjusted to a new diet. It's the same as investing your money. You either learn how to do so and actually do it, or you don't build up a bunch of money and have no one to blame but yourself. If your exercise education consists of listening to what the evening news says about it, and jogging cause that's what everyone else does, the lack of results is still on the individual just like it would be if I had no education in finance and just bought 5000 shares of one retarded stock that does horribly.

Oh and i'm not gifted with any special metabolism or because i'm younger or anything. My mom is fat, my older brother (34) has a big gut, my little brother has a gut. I do not, and it's because i decided not to and i hardly do any more than eat properly, park in the back of the parking lot, and weight train 3 hours a week (unlike that silly label that muscular guys must live in the gym and/or are on steroids).

 

[synergy1]

i notice a lot of out of shape people at the gym too. You can always tell the pretenders; they sit around at one machine, or simply walk on the treadmill. These are the same folks who say they try to lose the weight, but can't.

 

[zekko]

In a properly functioning body, as metabolism drops so does hunger.

Well, I agree with everything you wrote. However, as the body ages, it doesn't function as efficiently. You're only 29. I probably would have written the exact same thing you did at that age. It does get harder as you get older. And I can see it's probably even harder for women to keep the weight off than it is for men.

As for women and exercising, yeah they don't seem to take to it as naturally as men do. Some do of course, but generally speaking I don't think they find it as interesting, or think of it as something they can't do well unless they're athletic.

 

[Tazman]

mrRuckus that was beautiful.

Most people are truly ignorant about how to maintain their health. Exercise, while a great activity (if not taken to extremes) is not the answer to "healthy" weight loss. People think they can eat whatever they want and losing weight is only a matter of burning calories or eating "fat free" food made with all kinds of artificial ingredients. Animal fat is actually one of the most healthy things you can eat, but mainstream media, food processers, advertisers, etc., would have you think otherwise.

All calories are not equal, people don't get fat because they eat a lot, it's because of WHAT they're eating. Modern, industrialized, processed food that we aren't adapted to eating is creating an epidemic of health issues.

My mother isn't fat, she's capable of being fat like her other sisters but she doesn't eat as much. However, she IS prediabetic because the food she does eat is mostly the same processed crap most other people eat, not realizing the damage it's causing.

Women do tend to care less about their appearance when they get comfortable in their relationships, but MOST people don't know how to maintain their health whether they care about their appearance or not. For some, aging just means it will start to catch up to you faster.