Love is

Losing weight together

Just at the moment you’ve decided to embark on the path to a bikini body, your partner shamelessly slides a pizza loaded with cheese down their throat. And while you’re poking your fork at the last piece of broccoli on your plate, they also casually rip open a bar of chocolate. Not very handy, you know, I know. Better to pull your partner into your new healthy lifestyle because it’s been proven: when your significant other loses weight by living healthier, there’s a good chance you’ll also automatically lose weight. This is shown by research from the University of Connecticut that was recently published in the renowned Obesity Journal.

Over a hundred cohabiting couples were randomly divided into two groups. In one group, one partner followed the Weight Watchers program for six months, including a personal coach. In the other group, one of the partners received an information brochure about healthy eating, sufficient exercise, and strategies to keep their weight under control. The study found that one-third of the partners who were not actively following a lifestyle program – while their partner was – lost 3% or more of their initial weight after six months.

One explanation for this is the so-called ripple effect, which means that a behavioral change of an individual can have an immediate impact on their environment. So if you throw a bag of stir-fry vegetables in the pan with a fried fish and some rice in the evening, there’s a very good chance that your partner will eventually start copying this and unconsciously eat more foods with a lower fat content. Even when the best man has no intentions behind it. The effect is comparable to the ripples that spread when you throw something in the water. Furthermore, the speed at which the couples lose weight is connected to each other. This means that when one partner is slowly shedding the extra pounds, the other partner will do so as well. See, you can just blame your partner when they don’t cooperate with your good intentions.

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