Love makes you fat: if you move in together, you gain weight!

Lisa Vogel studied departmental journalism with a focus on medicine and biosciences at Ansbach University and deepened her journalistic knowledge in the master's degree in multimedia information and communication. This was followed by a traineeship in the editorial team. Since September 2020 she has been writing as a freelance journalist for

More posts by Lisa Vogel All content is checked by medical journalists.

With the shared apartment comes the relationship tummy: What acquaintances and friends already catches the eye has now been scientifically proven. If you move in with your partner, you gain weight.

And not too short: "For example, a slightly overweight man gains an average of 7.5 kilograms when he moves in with his partner," says Prof. Jutta Mata from the University of Mannheim. And the pounds are also accumulating among women. A wedding also has an unfavorable effect on the core of the body. It is different with separation and divorce: After the end of a relationship, the pounds drop.

Relationship status affects weight

Together with researchers from the German Institute for Economic Research, the Max Planck Institute for Educational Research in Berlin and the University of Leipzig, the Mannheim researchers repeatedly interviewed 20,950 men and women between the ages of 19 and 100 over a period of 16 years about their living conditions. Data such as age, income, weight and body mass index (BMI) were also recorded.

Love makes you fat

This means that living together with a partner is the greatest social influencing factor for the BMI. For people of normal weight, this is less than 25 points. The longer the partners share an apartment, the more rounded they become. Men put on average 0.28 points in their BMI in the first year in the shared apartment. In women it is even 0.376. After four years in the same nest, men have a whole 0.79 BMI points more, women 0.73.

The researchers speculate that the main reason for this is meals eaten together. Breakfast is already canceled by yourself. If you live with your partner, you tend to take the time to eat together. All in all, more calories come together - then the pants pinch.

Marriage also makes you fat

Even after getting married, men and women gain weight - especially in the first year. The BMI increases by an average of 0.25 points for men and by as much as 0.33 points for women. Then there is a slight all-clear: In the second year after saying yes, both of them lose weight, but only to then increase again. After four years of marriage, the BMI is 0.32 for him and 0.22 for her than before the marriage.

After the separation, the pounds tumble

The end of a relationship is a sad thing. A small consolation: The weight drops significantly in the first year after the relationship ends! Both genders are then even easier than before the start of the liaison. There are many reasons for this: changed eating habits, stress and grief from the separation. The researchers also suspect that the new partner search could play a role. Anyone who is single again wants to be attractive to new love partners again.

Living together without becoming fat

Breaking up to lose weight is certainly not a solution. But couples can take care to feed consciously when moving in together. Overcoming the weaker self together and exercising regularly prevents the moment of shock on the scales and can also strengthen the relationship.

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