Smoking kills.

Driving drunk kills.

And now…. having obese friends can kill your hopes of losing weight.

And it’s true.

A recently published study in the New England Journal of Medicine found that people who have a social network of obese friends were more likely to become obese themselves. 

The study showed that if you have a friend who became obese over time, you have a 57% chance of also becoming obese.  And the obesity influence is not limited to just friends.  If you have a sibling that’s obese, your chances of becoming obese increases by 40% and if you have a spouse that’s obese, you’re 37 percent more likely to also become obese. 

And it’s not because of the water or any other local environmental influence because this obesity influence was NOT seen between neighbors—which means you can have an obese neighbor and NOT be influenced to pack on the pounds like you would if you had a friend, a sibling or a spouse that was obese. 

Obesity is defined as having a Body Mass Index-BMI- of greater than or equal to 30.  You can calculate your own BMI by using this simple equation:

English version:  BMI =  your weight in pounds multiplied by 703 and divide that number by your square of your height in inches

Metric version:  BMI = your weight in kilograms divided by the square of your height in meters

If your Body Mass Index is 30 or above, you’re considered obese.  And if that’s the case, take an inventory of your friends, your siblings and your spouse.

Here’s what you need to ask yourself.

1.  When did you start putting on all this weight? 

2.  When did your friends, your siblings or your spouse start gaining alot of weight?

3.  Did you notice the weight gain?  And if you did, how accepting were you of your friends, siblings or spouses’ weight gain?

4.  Did you come to view your own weight gain as “okay” because you’d already accepted your friends’ weight gain as “okay”?

Your honest answers to these questions will most certainly illuminate the situation concerning the growing obesity epidemic.  Your social network of friends can greatly influence how you see yourself, how you value your health and how you eat. 

But don’t get discouraged if you look around at all the friends in your social network and see one friend struggling with her weight after another.  Because this social network doesn’t have to only influence weight gain….it can influence your weight loss…especially if you take the lead. 

Although this study focused on the strong influence your social network can have on obesity, the same could be said about the as equally strong influence in the opposite direction….towards achieving and maintaining a healthy weight, towards greater physical fitness and towards improved wellness. 

You hold the key to determining what your circle of friends—your circle of influence are going to focus on.  It can be gaining weight, becoming obese, developing diabetes, high blood pressure or heart disease…OR….it can focus on eating healthier, getting more exercise, maintaining a healthy lifestyle—all the things that I have been writing about for months now. 

Now is the time to get your social network back on track and focus on your health and wellness!!!

Get motivated….get excited….and get moving!

To your wellness,

Dr. Traci Ferguson, The Health and Wellness Queen

P.S.  You can jumpstart your new healthy living program by getting your very own copy of The Backyard Workout today!

This entry was posted on Thursday, August 2nd, 2007 at 3:05 am and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.