Stay single if you want to maintain a thinner waistline! A new research suggests that marrying a man or even living with one can make you gain pounds. Findings of the study warn that women may face an increased risk of developing health problems in their later years.
If they tend to overlook their increased weight. 6,458 women surveyed To reach this conclusion, researchers from the School of Human Movement Studies at the University of Queensland surveyed 6,458 Australian women aged 18 to 23 from 1999 to 2006.
All these women had no partner or a baby and their average weight was 140 pounds at the beginning of the study. The researchers observed that after 10 years of the study period, almost all the participants had completed their degrees, more than half of the women had been married, and some of them had at least one baby.
Women with mate found to be heavier Analysis of the survey revealed that women who had neither a partner nor a child gained 11 pounds over the 10-year duration of the study. On the other hand, women who had a partner but no baby gained about 15 pounds. Furthermore, those with a mate as well as a baby were found to have gained 20 pounds during the study period, they said.
“The weight gain appeared to start when they married, then worsened when they had their first child," said lead author Wendy J. Brown, Ph.D. "There was no effect on the rate of weight gain of having a second baby.""The so-called energy-balance variables like eating too much and moving too little had an effect, but the estimates of weight gain are adjusted for differences in these factors," she added.
The researchers hypothesized that those who stayed single remained very cautious of what they ate and hence did not put on much fat. However, married women were more likely to eat what they want for a couple of reasons; one they were contented with their lives, and secondly being married with kids left very less time for exercising and healthy eating.
Dr. Julie Fagan, a women's health specialist with UW Hospital and Clinics in Madison, Wisconsin said, "Weight control issues for married women with kids include less time to prepare nutritious meals and more reliance on fast food, takeout and processed food. Women may overeat due to mindless ingestion of comfort food." The study appears in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine.