A recent study done at Sam Houston State University in Huntsville, Texas, has shown that overweight friends and family are stacking the odds that you’ll be overweight too. People just like us make us feel comfortable. Nobody enjoys being the “odd man out” so we tend to be drawn to friends who are similar to us. If you’ve ever tried to take a diet seriously and had overweight friends who didn’t want to diet, you know that the peer pressure can be overwhelming to break the diet and maintain the status quo. You’ve been there, haven’t you? I remember trying to make my way through the Atkins Diet Induction Phase (where you don’t eat any starches) and finding that every one of my friends insisted that I try the “delicious garlic breadsticks” instead of just keeping to my salad. It isn’t easy standing up to that kind of pressure, especially when all your friends are telling you that you look fine and don’t need to diet. (Isn’t it amazing that friends will tell you lies like that when you weigh 240 pounds? Mine did. Like a sucker, I fell for it and then hated myself afterwards.
We all know how nice it is to break bread with good friends. The problem, according to this study, is that we just simply can’t push ourselves away from the table because of it. Sometimes we just don’t notice how much we eat and other times, we just don’t want the fun to end.
According to the study, the tendency to overeat among friends is mathematically predictable. Following are some examples of the math they’ve come up with:
Eating with one other person means you’ll eat about 35 percent more than if you were alone (unless the other person is your spouse since spouses tend to eat the same amount).
Eating with three other people means you will eat about 75 percent more than eating alone.
Eating with seven or more means you’ll eat 96 percent more (about twice as much as usual).
Following are a few suggestions for those of us trying to break the chain and break out of the family mold (or even that of most of our friends):
Go out to eat with other friends or family who are on the same diet you are.
If you are invited out to eat foods that aren’t on your diet plan, be strong and take a pass. If you can’t take a pass, try the “rule of two” and limit yourself to only two other items besides the entree (like an appetizer and dessert or only garlic breadsticks).
If you must eat with a group, sit near someone whom you know is a slow eater so you can pace yourself with them.
Dieting isn’t easy and it can be a real minefield if your friends and family aren’t with you. Be strong and diet smart. If you need some extra moral support, visit the Families.com Weight Loss Forums and find some virtual diet buddies to help you out.