Marriage triples risk of obesity, overweight in men, says study!!!

Health: A study presented at this year’s European Congress on obesity in Málaga, Spain, found that married men were 3.2 times more likely to be obese than unmarried men, but there was no increase in obesity risk for married women. Marriage also increased the odds of being overweight by 62% in men and 39% in women, The Guardian reported.

The study found that world obesity rates have more than doubled since 1990, with more than 2.5 billion adults and children classed as being overweight or obese.

According to the study, more than half of adults and a third of children are predicted to be overweight or obese by 2050.

Poor diet, inactivity, genetics, environmental toxins and underlying health conditions are known to increase the risk. However, scientists at the National Institute of Cardiology in Warsaw, Poland, wanted to study whether other factors were also involved.

Researchers involved in the study subjected medical and general health data of 2,405 people with an average age of 50. Then, statistical analysis was performed to confirm links between increased body weight and age, marital status, mental health and other factors.

In 2024, a study in China found that male BMI increases for the first five years after marriage, owing to higher calorie intake and less exercise. Being married was associated with a 5.2% increase in men being overweight and a 2.5% rise in men being obese. An earlier study by the University of Bath found that, on average, married men were 1.4kg heavier than their unmarried counterparts, The Guardian reported.