So I was reading the August or potentially the September edition of Cosmo and came across an article that stated that significant others were a major cause of partners gaining weight. If you dated a fatty, you became a fatty (basically). This is related to eating habits. In other words they most likely have worse ones if they are more heavy set and that translates to the skinny partner eating bad food they didn’t previously. Additionally it meant that since they were most likely dating a less active partner, their activity declined as well. Hurray- Fat is spreading! While the arguments made sense I thought to myself- “This is ridiculous, it’s only Cosmo.” I closed the magazine and promptly forgot all about it until now.
Recently I have been considering getting a second dog (don’t go freaking out, I’ve just been checking into it). However, according to most sources I’ve found, if you have a dog with some bad habits and you do not fix them prior to bringing another dog in, the new companion will also pick up those habits. That put my thoughts on getting second dog on hold, least until the summer. Meanwhile, it occurred to me- Do I adopt the bad habits of my companions?
Though not specific just to romantic relationships the New York Times answered this very question for me-
The investigators knew who was friends with whom as well as who was a spouse or sibling or neighbor, and they knew how much each person weighed at various times over three decades. That let them reconstruct what happened over the years as individuals became obese. Did their friends also become obese? Did family members? Or neighbors?
The answer, the researchers report, was that people were most likely to become obese when a friend became obese. That increased a person’s chances of becoming obese by 57 percent. There was no effect when a neighbor gained or lost weight, however, and family members had less influence than friends.
Alright, I buy it. It sounds like we do make each other fat… but here’s what is really worrisome-
It did not even matter if the friend was hundreds of miles away, the influence remained. And the greatest influence of all was between close mutual friends. There, if one became obese, the other had a 171 percent increased chance of becoming obese, too.
The same effect seemed to occur for weight loss, the investigators say. But since most people were gaining, not losing, over the 32 years, the result was, on average, that people grew fatter.
One of the psychologists mentioned in the article explained that the reason for this was most likely due to a change in the perception of fatness. If Bob your best-friend is a fatty, then you’ll probably think- He doesn’t look that bad.
Consider the raising rate of childhood obesity- the fat kid we used to make fun of as children may be the reason that we’re gaining weight. I think that’s even more reason to hunt him down for a wedgie and a good punch to the face. Though… apparently, the anorexic could have/has had an effect on us as well. For good measure, we probably should punch them too. Clearly that solves both of their problems, senseless violence will obviously learn them their ways. (It’s how I’ve learned…)
That being said-
If the new research is correct, it may say that something in the environment seeded what some call an obesity epidemic, making a few people gain weight. Then social networks let the obesity spread rapidly.
It may also mean that the way to avoid becoming fat is to avoid having fat friends.
I’m sorry I have to do this friends but… I’ve gained some weight recently and rather than take personal responsibility for it, I’ve decided it’s just easier to cut you fatties from the team. 
That’s the easiest way for me to lose weight, cut a few hundred pounds and, wham-o!, I’ll be thin as a whip.
