Controlling your weight can be a lifelong struggle, especially for us, women. We want to look and feel good always, particularly at important events in our lives, like our graduation or, our wedding day. Getting married, though, has been associated with weight gain since the belief has always been that when women get married they “let themselves go”. This results in piling up extra weight.
A new paper, however, written by Joelle Abramowitz, an economist at the U.S. Census Bureau, says that marriage results in women getting thinner and men fatter! Yes, you read correctly, but that is not the only thing she mentions in her paper.
She starts out by showing a simple graph and uses regressions, which allows her to control for a variety of factors, like income. Even though the graph is interesting, it doesn’t quite cover all expectations and variables. Still, her results have some rather interesting facts, including among other things:
- managers, CEOs and generally people in “high places” who can afford to entertain clients in expensive restaurants are prone to pile on the pounds
- those who work longer tend to be bigger
- those with a college degree are likely to be slimmer
So, why do long hours result in weight gain? Well, it is common knowledge that more time at the desk means less movement. Additionally, busy people may have less time to prepare good meals and end up choosing a take-away instead. Busy people also exercise less and tend to sleep less; inadequate sleep is associated with weight gain.
Source: The Economist
