Obesity is 'socially contagious', study finds Discussion at PhysOrgForum
Are your friends making you fat? Or keeping you slender? According to new research from Harvard and the University of California, San Diego, the short answer on both counts is "yes."

Appearing in the July 26 issue of the New England Journal of Medicine, a study coauthored by Nicholas Christakis of Harvard Medical School and James Fowler of UC San Diego suggests that obesity is "socially contagious," spreading from person to person in a social network.

The study -- the first to examine this phenomenon -- finds that if one person becomes obese, those closely connected to them have a greater chance of becoming obese themselves. Surprisingly, the greatest effect is seen not among people sharing the same genes or the same household but among friends.

If a person you consider a friend becomes obese, the researchers found, your own chances of becoming obese go up 57 percent. Among mutual friends, the effect is even stronger, with chances increasing 171 percent.


The researchers analyzed data over a period of 32 years for 12,067 adults, who underwent repeated medical assessments as part of the Framingham Heart Study. They were able to map a densely interconnected social network of the study's subjects by using the tracking sheets (which had previously been archived in a basement) that recorded not only the subjects' family members but also unrelated friends who could be expected to find them in a few year

"It's not that obese or non-obese people simply find other similar people to hang out with," said Christakis, a physician and a professor in Harvard Medical School's department of health care policy. "Rather, there is a direct, causal relationship."


"When we help one person lose weight, we're not just helping one person, we're helping many," Fowler said. "And that needs to be taken into account by policy analysts and also by politicians who are trying to decide what the best measures are for making society healthier."

"It's important to remember," Fowler said, "that we've not only shown that obesity is contagious but that thinness is contagious."

read the fukk article here

Seen this on the news.....interesting. I know a lot of heavyset people with skinny friends...being friends for many years, most dating back to elementary/high school...and their friends never got fat. Its fascinating, because just the other day I was telling this guy, ''People don't want to be friends with someone who's fat, 'cause they think fat is contagious.'' Then I seen this news coverage and I was like ...

Hell, I don't care what the person looks like....as long as they have a good personality and are fun to hang out with. That's all that matters to me.

Another upside of not being friends to the overweight.

I think it's very true that being around a lot of fat people causes one to think that being fat is normal, or healthy even.
My mom and the vast majority of my relatives from her side of the family are overweight or obese. I used to be obese.
I lost weight, and now my BMI is average (though not a lot of it's muscle...), and my mom WORRIES ABOUT ME because of it.
She thinks it's UNHEALTHY to be at my weight!

When my daughter was a teenager, it seemed most of her friends were heavy...She and one other girl had those teenage, cute shapes...All these girls were friends from elementary school, so I know my daughter was not hanging out with them to make herself look good...Years later, and into their 30's, they still remain friends..Her girlfriends, never lost the weight, but my daughter has put on a few pounds...

Right... secondhand obesity!

don't trust the BMI scale (pirate) as it has no real scientific evidence of body height and healthiness at 6 feet tall and 205 pounds by BMI standards I'm overweight and almost on the verge of obesity when infact im as healthy as an ox

Ive a friend who is clinicly obese, and we hang out. but i swim an box, so i havent got bigger. but in saying that i did eat a hamburger for lunch today that was bigger than my own head, an i have a big head. lol
my friends problem is medical. but i can see if you hang with someone on a regular basis and you both like the sweeter foods or food in general. i can see where this study would be correct.

I have always had both ,heavy and slim friends. I wonder if thats why i fluctuate losing and gaining 30lbs.?back and forth i go,If i want my cloths to fit right i need about three different wardrobe sizes! Drives me nuts! But sure it makes sense,if you hang with people who prefer to sit around munching on chips and pzza without getting much excersize,pounds are going to come on! Hang with people who munch on fruite and carrot sticks and enjoy physical activity, the pounds will come off! Bottom line your responsible for your own weight unless there,s a medical reason,it,s really up to us individually!

This latest thing about obesity casues me to just shake my head. It is almsot as if there needs to be some explaination for the growing obesity epidemic. I get so frustrated with the medical profession at trying to squeeze everyone into neat little packages.

My family, on both sides, are big people. By today's standards they are all obese. I am 5'6" and weight just over 200 lbs and that too is obese. However, most of my relatives are farmers which means they are not sitting on there fannies in front of a computer all day! These people work and work very hard! I workout twice a week, walk everywhere and eat sensibly. In other words, we are for the most part, healthy. And add to that i have realitves in their 80's and 90's still going strong. But they shouldn't be by the medical standards used today to measure thier weight.

I think the medical profession as a whole little understands the human body, nutrition and how it all works together. They all to quickly run tests and classify people by numbers without considering the whole person including the person's family history. They put you in a box and there you stay!

And as for "getting" it from the people you associate with, get real! I want to say to those who believe this - come join reality!

After having my daughter, I put on some pounds. Now matter how little I ate, I was not losing weight, was tired all the time and just felt crappy all the time. I was checked over for thyroid problems, my kidneys, my heart....healthy as can be, blood pressure was normal. I was given a clean bill of health. All I was told was to do more physical activity, which when you don't have any energy is really a silly thing to tell someone, because how do you get the energy to exercise when you don't even feel like getting out of bed? I read in a magazine that one of the major food allergies was wheat. It can really throw your body off. So, I cut out all wheat products....I lost 10 pounds in the first 2 weeks. My energy level has skyrocketed and I feel much better. I don't wake up tired, I am raring to go in the mornings. Some times a simple little thing can have the biggest impact on our health.

It just blows me away how an allergy to something can be so subtle and yet devistating at the same time! And it,s when they are so subtle they go undetected for so long and cause so much grief and frustration! I,m so glad that you discovered what was making you feel so awful!!!I,ve heard that wheat allergies can cause quite a variety of bad effects on a lot of people!

Yeah, technically Shaq (the basketball player) would probably rate "morbidly obese" on that scale.
I'm 6'1" and 165 pounds. My BMI is average, but again, not a lot of it's muscle. I have problems with upper body strength.

if we go by that also George Clooney and Russell Crowe are obese as well which is why the BMI is not a good way to tell if your healthy or if your in the right weight range i could give you a few tips to help with upper body strength if you'd like just pm me

My wife is overweight. She"s been with me for seven years. I"m still skinny !

This is from my wife Emma:
Hellooooo there ,this is my first post on here,so please be kind.....well then ,here goes......
Since the age of five i have been overweight ,which yes as caused me lots of misery...I have always been very popular at school,college and work,in all my times i have had friends who are slim (or at least thinner than me),and i have never come across me making my friends fat what so ever.
It is articles like this that are making more and more overweight people feel like they have a diesese,its pathetic!!!!!!!yes i might be larger than most people but as for MAKING people larger with my pressence what a load of crap,the thing is there are narrow minded people out there who beleive this utter rubbish..being overweight is not good ,i have tried many many diets ,but the problem lies deeper than a doctors diet sheet,yes i beleive its some kind of addiction like drugs or alhohol.....dont these reserchers have anything more interesting to study....obviosoly not!!!!!any way if there is anybody out there reading this dont worry...us fat people will NOT make YOU fat!!!!!
If this is the case any slim people out there, could you be my friend and make me slim....lol...well it should work both ways if the article is true....golly what it would be like in an ideal world!!!!!love emma.******

lol spend a few months with me and my training regimen and if it's not genetic i can guarantee I'll help ya out

Thanks for that dark lotus,but i live in england and i think canada is a bit far to travel for a training regimen...lol...cheers ...emma

oh how i wish i had the time to go to england i would love to see the country side

What is amazing is now eating something that has wheat in it and how ill it makes me. And until you start reading each and every ingredient, you would be surprised what has wheat in it. Just like those of us who are lactose intolerant, the products that have milk in them are amazing. There have even been studies that they are trying to find out how allergies affect us like kids with ADD and ADHD.

Yes, it can be an addiction, but there are also scientists who believe that some people do not digest certain foods properly and so do not get the nutritional value out of them that are needed for the body to function properly. Have you ever had an allergy test? And also to take into consideration are peoples genetic traits. There are some families that are just a little heavier than others. We also have to take into consideration the "look" that Hollywood and fashion magazines want us to accept. The sex symbols of the 30s and 40s would now be considered fat. Marylin Monroe was I believe a 12 or 14. When the ultimate goal is to be a 0 or at the very least a 2, that is a huge difference.

This is Deck now, not Emma.
I"d love to see the countryside to, but its all underwater !

oh monroe, monroe monroe *drools*

I think she was beautiful, and definitely not fat.

she was stunning a woman of immense beauty *wipes off face*

Marilyn Monroe ? Fat ? She was so sexy n gorgeous.
What has happened to society today, to make females (in general), think they are too big ?
I see lots of young girls (my daughters friends) who are like stick insects & really need to eat some FOOD!
Super-skinny, aint sexy, its just malnutrition.
My wife Emmas a bit on the large size, but i"d prefer her to be large than seeing her ribcage showing through her skin.
Anyway, back to the thread! I"m 5ft 11" & 12stone. 7 yrs with Emm havent made me fat & Emmas 7yrs with me havent made her lose weight . So the scientist or whoever are talking a load of b******s.***

Don't short circuit your keayboard, DL! LOL

Hi Nativechick :-)

Yeah I saw this on the news too. I think it's true. I love to be active and play tennis and basketball, but "a good time" to my friends means "hey lets pop in a movie and eat". (and I"m not talking about carrot sticks either) LOL

I've tried to suggest we walk or do something physical that could offset the large pizza we just ate, but that's always met with rejection. One time I tried to make salads for dinner and was met with a look of disgust.

I don't try to judge my friends by what they look like(or what they like to eat) but where does one meet other people who want to be healthy......besides the gym, that is.

Yes and No. I know some women who are overweight who look at other women who are overweight and say that they are smaller than that woman, so they really aren't that heavy. And don't underestimate the competition between women, as long as one is not as heavy as her friend and is the "smaller" one, she feels OK with herself. It is not all women who think this way, but some who need to find a reason not to eat healthy and exercise.

Hey, Rocket, ask Emma if she ever did any reading about the Blood Type diet. In it they talk about some foods being toxic to certain blood types, and others are highly beneficial. A natural-path figured this out, and it makes sense to me, otherwise why would there be so many different types of blood?

Swim across and you'll be fit by the time you get here.

Personally i think being extremely skinny isn,t pretty anymore than being extremely fat isn,t pretty! Woman arn,t supposed to be stick thin specially in their child bearing years!What we should be doing is keep it healthy! For some that will be slimmer and for others that will be a little heavier,as far as looks go i think a woman with curves is very attractive and for a man i really don,t like when their muscles are huge and bulging!Healthy, toned and strong from an active life or a hard days work is perfect!IMO!

well I'm not bulging but I'm quite fit and curvy women are my fav IMO stick girls ugh i just want to grab them and scream eat a piece of cheesecake!! please!

Exactly! Your obviously a guy with good taste!In woman and desert!

You know, there are times when I read some statements and my mind drops into the gutter...Bad, Glory, BAD! LOL!

I used to be one of those stick figures, and why? Because my brother told me I was fat when I was a teenager...and looking back now I most definitely was not fat. It's amazing how one person can totally alter your self-image.

well that's one of the reasons i started working out got into boxing and have such a strict diet but for me it wasn't someone telling me i was fat my uncle had a triple bypass because of how he ate and i didn't want to end up on an operating table because i ate all the time.. as for the above comment glory bad indeed

My dad was on cholesterol pills and he couldn't figure out why...could be all the lard sandwiches he ate in his lifetime....EEEWWWW. He would grab a peice of bread and dip it in the lard drippings from a roast. And then eating buns in our family, mom would bake fresh buns and make garlic butter to dip the buns in, really healthy!

ahh we call those Nova Scotian bacon dips lmao i don't eat em but that's where you take a bread heel and dip it in bacon grease ughhh lol

This reminded me of my father-in-law...He's Italian and when we had Sunday meals, he would take big chunks of Italian bread and dip it in his milk...When I was pregnant I couldn't eat at the same table as him...

I really love my country, but I have to say we're living in a society that promotes obesity. Everywhere you go there is junk food. I remember I worked at a college once and everyday it was someone's birthday and if you didn't go have a piece of cake, you would be looked down upon. Oh and every other day, they had a cart where they would wheel in food you could munch on while you worked: chips & dips, crackers and cheese spread, cookies, cake, etc.

And not to mention the meetings and luncheons we had to attend. And oh I forgot the weekly barbecues. I tried to get out of that one but my boss said I was expected to attend.

Go into a supermarket and what do you find? People between the aisles with tables and food you can try. Are they giving samples of their delicious peaches or fresh carrots? No, they advertise chips & dips, and other things we would call "junk food."

I knew a few people in school who would habg around big people just so they could feel better about themselves

Bull SH*T!! I have an obese friend and seeing him makes me not want to eat!!