Being with slim people helps to lose weight

If you are trying to lose weight, include slimmer people as your friends.

The findings, published in the journal Obesity, were based on an analysis of 9,335 people aged between 18 to 65 years and followed up for a year.

‘For the study, we relied on how people perceived those in their network rather than actual weight measurements,’ said Matthew Andersson, Assistant Professor, Baylor University, Texas.

Participants were then asked whether they wanted to lose, maintain or increase weight and assessed how often they interacted with those they identified as frequent contacts, whether in person or by phone, email, texting or social media.

‘Frequency of contact played a major role. With less than 100 interactions with an individual during a year, changes in weight were linked to a fraction of a pound. But as interactions became more, weight differences became more substantial,’ added Andersson.

In addition to all the other weight losing measures, knowing more and more slim people and interacting frequently with them may also help!