Weight: Men Vs Women

Weight: Men Vs Women

"Men vs. Women: Who Gains More 

Weight After Marriage and 

Divorce?"

"Marriage and divorce are life-changing events, the effects of which are evident in innumerable ways — including on the bathroom scale.

Both marriage and divorce appear to lead to weight gain among couples, but each occasion affects men and women differently, according to a new study. Researchers from Ohio State University found that women tended to gain more weight than men after marriage, while after a divorce, men's girth expanded more than women's.

Previous studies of weight gain and coupledom have looked at average gains and losses, but sociology professor Zhenchao Qian and his doctoral student Dmitry Tumin decided to break down the weight effects by gender to better understand whether marital transitions affected men differently than women.

The researchers looked at survey data from a nationally representative sample of more than 10,000 men and women who were 14 to 22 years old when the survey began in 1979. The participants were questioned every year up to 1994, and then every other year afterward.

The scientists found interesting gender differences when they focused on the two-year mark after a marriage or divorce. Although both men and women who married tended to gain weight compared with their counterparts who stayed single, women were tended to gain more weight than men.

Conversely, two years after a divorce, separated partners tended to be heavier compared with couples who remained married, but men posted larger weight gains than women. (...)"

in Time