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So you're the happiest you can be. Newly married, and now life is on cruise control. But science is confirming what women have known all along - men start letting themselves go after they get married. A new study suggests husbands tend to gain weight and get lazier after tying the knot.
Researchers found:
- Men tend to start packing on the pounds within five years of getting married.
- Husbands tend to start eating more and exercising less in that time, leading to a higher body mass index (BMI).
- Marriage is associated with a 5.2% increase in being overweight and a 2.5% increase in obesity for males.
- But researchers didn’t find evidence of the same happening to married women.
“This phenomenon, commonly referred to as ‘happy fat,’ has been substantiated by numerous cohort studies conducted in developed Western countries,” explains study author Shiwen Quan. “Men are facing a significant risk of obesity as they age, so after marriage, it’s important they don’t ‘let themselves go’ by maintaining healthy eating habits and exercising regularly.”