Friends Help You Recognize that it's Okay to Be Fat

[bcholmes]

It's not that people who are overweight or obese seek each other out, but rather that friends are growing fatter together.

"What appears to be happening is that a person becoming obese most likely causes a change of norms about what counts as an appropriate body size. People come to think that it is okay to be bigger, since those around them are bigger, and this sensibility spreads," Dr. Christakis said.

— "Are your friends making you fat?", The Globe and Mail

Comments

[kat-chan.livejournal.com]

Exactly. I've always been, at best, on the "overweight" borderline by BMI since I first saw tables, even though I wasn't really close to overweight at those best times. I've got a lot of muscle mass, and as a result I weigh more than most people my height who are moderately active. But in the last couple of years my metabolism has gone out of whack, and in trying to adjust I did put some fat on. But while my weight would put me at "obese" or "morbidly obese" on the BMI charts, I'm not close to that.