Fat Pals Can Perk Up Your Chances Of Putting On Pounds, Study Says

Is your best pal a fatty? If yes, than you are more likely to put on extra pounds yourself as a new study found that people are 'subconsciously' influenced by the weight of those around them.

An international survey conducted by experts from Dartmouth College, Stirling University in Scotland and Leuven University in Belgium found that humans decide if they are fat or obese by comparing themselves to other people around them of same gender and age rather than by body mass indexdefine.

The researchers claim that having fatties as your pal or even neighbors helps to make you obese as being fat is seemed normal.

However, a better educated person will feel more overweight than someone of the same weight with little education.

The new study, presented to a conference in the United States, analyzed the data on 27,000 European adults across 29 countries. The scientists found that fifty percent of female and a third of male feel they are overweight. But if people around them are overweight they feel it’s normal and tend to put on weight.

The people in Europe are nearly ten kilos overweight than a few decades ago.

Professor Andrew Oswald, from the University of Warwick, one of the researchers said, 'Human beings compare themselves among their localised peer group even if they are not conscious of it.'

Adding further he said, “If fatness levels increase and 'we all start copying each other we will end up with quite serious health problems.”

"Rising obesity needs to be thought of as a sociological phenomenon, not a physiological one," he added.

The results of the study is being presented at the National Bureau of Economic Research conference in Cambridge Massachusetts.

At present there are more than 1 billion overweight adults, with at least 300 million of them obese throughout the world. In the UK only, two-thirds of all adults and one-third of children are obese. Another fifteen years and nearly 86% of male will be overweight.

A latest study from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) suggests that 1 in 4 adults in the US are overweight.

Being overweight does not only cause heart disease and diabetes but also affect a person's joints, mood, energy levels, breathing and sleep. Obesity is also associated with certain types of cancerdefine, as well as psychological problems, higher medical costs and premature death. So, being overweight can impact a person's entire quality of life.

Eating a well balanced diet, switching from whole milk to low-fat milk, regular exercise --- even if it's just 5–10 minutes a day and cutting back on sugary beverages can help in keeping off few kilos.