Women & Weight Gain
I understand that the lede in this article (“Study Says Women With Mate Get Heavier”) is meant to pique interest, but in the words of my friend Leah: “Yeah, duh. Sorry to whoever wasted the last 10 years conducting that study.” Some dispiriting findings include:
After adjusting for other variables, the 10-year weight gain for an average 140-pound woman was 20 pounds if she had a baby and a partner, 15 if she had a partner but no baby, and only 11 pounds if she was childless with no partner…Moreover, there was a steady weight gain among all women over the 10 years of the study.
I find it interesting that “complacency” and “your partner has a great metabolism and keeps things you shouldn’t eat like ice cream in the freezer and he seems able to have one bite of it while you wake up face down in a bowl of dulce de leche” do not appear as rationales for why women who live with partners gain more weight than those who live alone.
This was interesting on the baby front::
Almost all of the weight gain happened with the first baby; subsequent births had little effect.
Sorry Mom. It was all me. Can’t blame Rob anymore.
But here’s the real gem, buried a few paragraphs down:
Also by the end of the study period, there were fewer smokers and risky drinkers than at the beginning, more women who exercised less and a larger proportion without paid employment.
So basically regardless of whether or not I live with a partner, I am bound to get chubs, and lose my job. Awesome.
Supporters:
Fight weight gain by following the Human chorionic gonadotropin diet plan for a healthy body.
Fact: breast fed on demand… healthy child,slim mother.
The target age range was 18-23 years old. I am curious about a number of other factors, such as the usual “Freshman 15″ for those entering university. Also, this is the age when a person graduates high school (no more PE classes, sports, etc) and maybe attends university or gets a desk job. This is also the age when people leave home, (no more Mom’s cooking and hello Taco Bell — Fresco menu excluded).
This article is from Australia, not sure about their diet and lifestyle, but I do believe environment and economy are major factors. After 2 years living in Peru, I fully believe external factors (and not genetics) are a dominant factor. In Peru, fast food is about $6 USD for a combo meal, while home cooking is more readily available on every corner, for about $2 USD. Wealthier people are generally heavier because they can afford to eat more crap (fast food and fine dining). Much more walking is involved and it is very uncommon to see an obese person. Lastly, lunch is usually at 1:30pm until around 2:30-3pm, which means for dinner, people usually are not very hungry and eat less before bed time.
Because many Peruvian men are macho, Peruvian women with partners are generally seen in exercise pants, often at the gym or even in the grocery store (when not at the plastic surgeon), trying to stay slim because it is common for married Peruvian men to also have 1 or more girlfriends. The joke is make twice the number of sandwiches for a man’s funeral, because you never know how many wives or mistresses will show up. But that is another story…
Very interesting insight, Alicia!
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Did you quit the gym already Menendez?
Jane Jacobsen was my lactation expert.
Jane … d’ya got an answer for the post-menopausal pounds?
Happy 2010!
thanks so much for including how much each workout potentially could burn�.I hate doing workouts without knowing because it just makes me feel the intensity and sweating is worth it! and my goodness I need to swim every morning�talk about burning it all off!