Overweight wife

[dangel]

My wife was thin when we married but gas gained 25 kilos in the 5 years since. I don't understand how there can be such a dramatic change. She's South American -can it be cultural?

[Yinzer]

Where do you live? No offense to any of my fellow countrymen but excessive weight gain seems to be the rule in America. I doubt the south american thing plays a part. It's usually more of a lifestyle. Kids or no kids, women tend to get fatter because of poor diet/portion sizes, sitting all day at work, sitting in transit from work to home, sitting in front of TV or on bed or on floor and in front of computer or book etc. I personally think imbalanced diet is the biggest culprit. Too many cheap chemical additives substituting for real ingredients (do you ever read those ingredient labels?!!) Another thing that can affect weight gain is certain medications, especially antidepressants. Don't nag her about this, just try to be kind and join in on the lifestyle changes that she needs to make.

[Yinzer]

I also want to add that age and previous weight matter. Though young, I gained about the same amount of weight but considering I was only 100 lbs my husband welcomed most of it (though I have since lost about a third of it). How does your wife feel about this?

[RevShirls]

There can be a number of reasons, as mentioned by Yinzer and lemonblade. You don't say whether you have children or not. It is hard for many women to lose weight after having a baby. Depression can be another factor. Many people who are depressed engage in comfort eating. Medication can also be a factor, such as antidepressants (mentioned by Yinzer). Asthma drugs such as steroids can have a dramatic change on weight. The steroids (prednisolone/cortisone) cause the body to retain water and they also make a person feel constantly hungry. Many people on steroids develop moon-shaped faces. This stops when they stop taking the drug. As lemonblade rightly states, it is not good to nag or criticise someone about their weight. In fact, it can even make the situation worse.

[dangel]

Thanks for your answers. For your information, she is 29 (we married when she was 24) and now weighs 80 kilos (55 5 years ago). We have no children. Perhpas I have nagged her in a good natured way. She laughs and says she loved English food, has no willpower and likes herself at her new weight. The problem is that I can see apart from the large amoount of fat she has accumulated is that the 80 kilos could easily become 100 or more in another 5 years. I thought it might be cultural beacause when we visited her family a few months ago, I noticed that several of her married friends had put on weight too, though now as much as my wife.

[dangel]

She is ceratinaly aware of her gain, but does not seem at all concerned and actually seems to find it comical and cute. She does not refrain from eating all the sweets and cakes she wants so I don't hold much hope of her turning this around on her own.