Oct 07 2008
Be Careful of Who you Hang Around With
Didn’t someone once said that if you want to look thin, hang around people fatter than you? Well, if we go by a study conducted by some Harvard Medical School researches, we would find that the saying poses a high degree of risk.
When we are all worried about what we eat and think that a lack of exercise is what is contributing to our weight gain, their research has shown that obesity also spreads through social ties.
In short, the study of 12,000 plus people over a period of 3 decades showed that if your close friend becomes obese, the chances of you getting fat increases by 57%. If the person is your sibling, the chances of you putting on weight rises by 40% while if it is your spouse, it is 37%.
Therefore, still think you want to hang around people fatter than you? I guess if your social network consists of overweight people, then it only makes sense that you do not feel the urgency to reduce your own weight or you won’t find it a big deal if you put on some. Comparatively, if everyone around you is slim, you would have added incentive to look the same as well so as not to feel out of place.
So, it is not so much of what you eat or don’t eat when it comes to your weight. It is who you hang around with. Thus, if you want to look thin, perhaps it is time to hang around people thinner than you. 
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All my sisters were thinner then me…does this mean they are going to get fatter? hehehe