Women With Partners Gain More Weight: Study

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Women who live with a partner put on more weight than those who don't live with a mate, says a new study.

For 10 years, researchers followed more than 6,000 Australian women who were ages 18-23 at the start of the study. After adjusting for a number of variables, the researchers found that the 10-year weight gain for an average 140-pound woman was 20 pounds for a woman with a baby and partner, 15 pounds for a woman with a partner but no baby, and 11 pounds for a childless woman with no partner, The New York Times reported.

The findings appear in the January issue of the American Journal of Preventive Medicine.

A more active social life may help explain why women with partners gain more weight than those without partners, said Maureen A. Murtaugh, an expert in women's weight gain and associate professor of epidemiology at the University of Utah.

"Think of going to a restaurant," Murtaugh told the Times. "They serve a 6-foot man the same amount as they serve me, even though I'm 5 feet, 5 inches and 60 pounds lighter."