For gentle readers who are bold enough to ask a spouse to lose a few pounds, Geezer offer this encouraging news. The Boston Globe reports on two techniques that seem to do the trick, and may not ruin the marriage.
The paper reports on a study conducted at the University of Connecticut and published in the International Journal of Obesity, in which researchers found that couples not only
tend to gain weight together, they can also lose it as a pair, even if
only one of them is enrolled in a formal program. The Globe reports that spouses of people who attended regular meetings to encourage making dietary
changes lost about five pounds over the course of a year.
In the second study, conducted at the University of Pennsylvania and published in the Journal of the American Medical Association, one group of participants played in a lottery that paid
off only if they lost their target number of pounds. Another group made a
deposit of their own money, which they got back, plus a matched amount,
if they achieved their weight loss goals. The Globe reports that after 16 weeks, about half of
the people in the incentive groups lost the goal of 16 pounds, or one
pound per week, compared with only 10 percent of the people who had
only monthly weigh-ins and no money rewards.
Read more about how to help a spouse lose weight–politely–in the Boston Globe.