HHS HealthBeat (January 21, 2009)

Ripples of weight

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From the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, I’m Ira Dreyfuss with HHS HealthBeat.

Live with someone and you might pick up some of the person’s habits. Researchers know that married couples tend to gain weight together. But one researcher says couples also can lose it.

Amy Gorin of the University of Connecticut found that in couples in which one person was on a diet and exercise program, and the other wasn’t. She says the people who were in the program lost an average of 20 pounds. But the other halves lost weight, too.

Gorin says the spouses who weren’t dieting were eating a little less anyway.

[Amy Gorin speaks] ``Even in those individuals, if your partner or spouse was in the weight loss intervention, you yourself lost about five pounds over the course of the year.’’

The study in the International Journal of Obesity was supported by the National Institutes of Health.

Learn more at hhs.gov.

HHS HealthBeat is a production of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. I’m Ira Dreyfuss.

Last revised: January, 27 2009