People who have weight loss treatment are nearly twice as likely to split up within six years, new research has showed. Around 1.6m Brits have used slimming drugs for their battle with the bulge
The fat jab boom is set to send Britain’s divorce rates rocketing, health boffins claim. Folk who have weight loss treatment are nearly twice as likely to split up within six years, research shows.
Of the 12,531 married gastric band patients who took part in a study, 14.4% separated compared to 8.2% in the wider population.
Professor Per-Arne Svensson, from the University of Gothenburg in Sweden which carried out the study, said ”similar mechanisms” could occur with weight loss drugs as with surgery when it comes to relationships.
“With the newest weight-loss drugs, we would have weight losses that are not as big as with bariatric surgery, but they are significant enough,” he said.
Prof Svensson reckons there are many reasons why the couples break-up.
He said: “People who embark on the weight-loss journey usually have a lot of other life changes as well.
“That means that they are probably becoming more social, trying to live a healthier life.
“If the partner is not really on the train there, if they don’t follow this person along in this change, that might be something that causes tension.”
He added: “It could also be that you have a person who is stuck in a bad relationship, but doesn’t have the self-confidence to break it off because they feel ‘who would like to date them, if not their current spouse’.”
It comes after a study by the University of Pittsburgh found gastric band patients were more than twice as likely to divorce.
David Sarwer, director of the Center for Obesity Research in Philadelphia, said: “It’s not that losing a large amount of weight is ending healthy marriages.
“It’s probably more that for the person losing weight and feeling better about themselves, it may be empowering them to leave an unhealthy relationship.”
Around 1.6m Brits have used slimming drugs for their battle with the bulge.