"If you want to look thinner, hang out with fat people" -- not anymore!

[Klorox]

Now hanging out with fatties will make you fat.
LINK

Obesity a trend among friends Jill Stark July 26, 2007 IT HAS been blamed on fast food, genetics and a sedentary lifestyle. Now research suggests obesity is "socially contagious" — and your friends could be making you fat. A study of more than 12,000 people found that having an obese friend increases the risk of becoming obese by up to 57 per cent. Having an overweight brother or sister increases the chances by 40 per cent and having a heavy spouse by 37 per cent. The Harvard Medical School research, published today in the prestigious New England Journal of Medicine, found that even having a fat friend hundreds of kilometres away can affect a person's weight. Using information from medical check-ups over 32 years, researchers tracked patients and their friends and family members. They found distinct clusters of people who were thin and heavy, with obesity seemingly spreading through social networks. "What we see here is that one person's obesity can influence numerous others to whom he or she is connected both directly and indirectly … it's not that obese or non-obese people simply find other similar people to hang out with. Rather, there is a direct causal link," said Professor Nicholas Christakis, one of the study's authors. Gender had a profound effect. People with an obese friend of the same sex had a 71 per cent increased risk of becoming obese. If a man's brother was heavy, his chances of becoming obese increased by 44 per cent, while among sisters the risk rose by 67 per cent. Among friends and siblings of opposite genders, there was no increased risk. Professor Christakis said the findings could not be explained simply by people eating the same foods or following a similar lifestyle. "The fact that neighbours don't affect each other and that geographic separation doesn't influence the risk among siblings or friends tells us that environmental factors are not essential here," he said. "What appears to be happening is that a person becoming obese most likely causes a change in norms about what counts as an appropriate body size. People come to think that it is OK to be bigger since those around them are bigger, and this sensibility spreads." But obesity expert Professor Boyd Swinburn, from Deakin University, said: "There are quite strong correlations in body size between siblings but it's not just contagious. There's a bit of genetics in there and a bit of common family environment, so there's lots of other forces that can explain that as well."

[Balintherlas]

Hahahaha this is funny, all these posts got deleted. Atleast by posting this, and spamming a lil bit (just joking) I'm up to my previous number.

[Papa Schlumpf]

I happen to have some of these posts in my cache...

Sir Krustin: Absolutely true. I hung around with a guy we called "Belly" (for obvious reasons) for a month and gained ten pounds.

Kyrvias: I don't believe that for a second. That's like saying Hanging around tall people will make you tall. Kind of.

Balintheras:
Yep, I used to be somewhat fat, I like to think I had a lot of muscle though, and a lot of my friends that were slim gained a bunch of weight. Although I did lose a fair bit of weight, so hopefully I won't gain it back hangin out with them. [img]smile.gif[/img]

Illumina Drathiran'ar: I believe it. If eating disorders like anorexia are spread among friends, why not obesity?

Papa Schlumpf: (in response to Kyrvias): That makes no sense whatsoever.

bungleau:
Hmmm... could be some truth. I weighed a lot because I hung out with people who weighed a lot and did (and ate) the same kinds of things. And now I don't weigh as much, largely because I hang out with a subset of the same friends who do and eat healthier things. It must all be because of my friends, and not because of me, my own choices, or my own free will.

It's a case of post hoc ergo propter hoc... I see something, then I see a result, therefore the something must have caused the result. People who gain weight have family and friends who gain weight... so the family and friends must cause it. Couldn't possibly be because your family shares the same gene pool, or because you spend time with your friends doing and eating the same things... nope, couldn't be. They even said so!

Another case of University professors needing to get published, mining some data, and coming up with results. It starts with "here's a bunch of data. You guys look through it and see if anything jumps out at you, no matter how silly".

Iron Greasel: Bungleau: If you spend time with your friends eating and gain weight, that still counts. Your latin doesn't scare me.

Arvon: If this is true then wouldn't fat people lose weigth hanging with skinny people. Then everyone in the group would get to the median. I think this is just more of the bad science that get press space.

[Kyrvias]

If this is true then wouldn't fat people lose weigth hanging with skinny people. Then everyone in the group would get to the median. I think this is just more of the bad science that get press space.

Exactly! That's what I was trying to say

[Callum]

Well I think the theory was that having fat friends makes you worry less about staying in shape yourself. I can see how this makes sense...

[Sir Krustin]

To expand on what I posted, I'll mention that his diet was (and still is) the problem.

The thing is, eating fat/unhealthy is easier than eating properly and habits can be contagious. This would explain why getting fat "rubs off" easier than getting skinny.

[Dragonshadow]

I guess I can see how this could happen. I can't say I've ever seen it happen to me or the people I hang around with much though... Although the most overweight person of the group has recently started loosing weight, so maybe it can go both ways.

[Raistlin Majere]

I'd say this works in instances other than obesity/anorexia as well. The norms of social groups easily rub off on the others. For instance, as was said, should there be a group of friends with one obese and the others slim, the obese one would possibly feel uncomfortable, and make an effort to lose weight as to not stand out as much. There's no reason why it can't work the other way around as well, though perhaps for different reasons. Among the most likely would be the already said instance of the slim one in a group of heavier people no longer feeling the need to pressure ones self into staying slim.

Most of this is achievable with a little common sense, but of course valuable time and resources had to be spent on it in order to scientifically prove it. -sighs-

[Bungleau]

Good points all... up to the part in the research where simply having an overweight relative some distance away is enough to make you fat. I agree completely on what happens among friends... hey, I'm proof at 57 pounds gone in the last 4-1/2 months.

However, I still have overweight parents (150 miles away), overweight relatives (spread all over the country), overweight friends (that I see on a regular basis), and overweight colleagues (that I see regularly). And I'm going the other way... just a statistical outlier that tells me that free will trumps most things.