Friends Let Friends Get Fat

At least, that's what the New England Journal of Medicine says...and it certainly makes sense, considering all the things I've said about the need for social support for fat loss.

"The researchers found that if someone's friends becomes obese, that person's chances of becoming obese increased by 57 per cent. Siblings and spouses also have an influence, although a reduced one."

If you only hang around people that don't exercise and eat junk, guess what you'll do? If your co-workers insist on bringing in donuts everyday, guess what's going to happen? If your weekend plans with friends revolve around happy hours, pizza deliveries, and take out specials, well, you know where this is going to end up.

The researches actually attributed this increased risk to the fact that if you're friends are fat, and you're fat, then everyone will just accept it and you'll all get fatter (my words, not theirs).

And what's worse, is I believe this is also true for kids as well.

Here in Toronto, I live near a dance studio. It's not uncommon for groups of children all over the city to take the subway downtown and go to this studio for some fun and exercise. Unfortunately, this is about all the exercise most of these kids are getting.

Yesterday I saw a group of 20 girls going to the studio. I'd estimate their age at about 10 or 11. Of those 20 girls, half of them had big bellies. They were clearly overweight. Kids that age shouldn't have beer guts.

But back to the problem of adult obesity...

Business motivational experts like Brian Tracy say, "Your income will be the average of the income of the 6 people you hang around the most."

So its not surprising that the same "rule" should apply to your weight.

On the other hand, Friends DON'T Let Friends Get Fat...

I know that a lot of my friends are fit and healthy because they hang around me. Just as "social obesity" is contagious, so is social fitness. When my friends see what I have in my fridge and how I train (with supersets and intervals), they start doing the same.

And as soon as one of them made significant improvements in their fitness, several others started getting serious results as well. And the Turbulence Training lifestyle I started continues to "spread", positively affecting dozens of my friends, thousands of my TT Members and Turbulence Training users, and millions of magazine readers.

If you want to stop the cycle of body fat in your group of friends, you'll need to connect with a group of individuals that are collectively working towards fitness. There are dozens of message boards on the internet that can do this. There are gyms everywhere, full of friendly, helpful fitness enthusiasts to help you. They won't bite, just ask them for help if you are intimidated by the treadmill.

Or do something fun, like the kids I mentioned earlier. If these girls had access to the dance classes more than just once a summer, I'm sure there would be a whole lot fewer overweight kids in the group.

So whether your social network needs to lose a few pounds, or if you're a parent of an overweight kid, become the catalyst for fat loss by role modeling healthy eating, an active lifestyle, and stop accepting obesity as being "okay". Because its not - no matter what the politically correct sucker of the day wants to tell you. Obesity will suck the life right out of you, causing you joint pain, medical problems, and an early death...and I won't even get into the social ramifications.

It's worth noting too that the study found, "Persons of the same sex had relatively greater influence on each other than those of the opposite sex". So next boy's weekend or girl's night out, start a conversation about the healthy habits you've introduced into your life, and see if you can become the catalyst for improving the health of your friends.

You've got your friends, now get them healthy. It won't happen overnight, but now is the best time to start. Change your mindset about eating and exercise...more to come on that in the future.

Get social support for fat loss,

CB
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