Your friends and family might be making you fat: diet ‘sabotage’ study

Don’t bite the hand that feeds you — or maybe do if you’re trying to lose some weight.

We often rely on loved ones to be the voice of reason when struggling to stay the course, but a new study suggests that friends and family may be the hurdle to our weight loss finish line.

According to University of Surrey researchers in England, there are three main ways that the people closest to you — friends, family and lovers — can have a big effect on one’s heath goals.

Jane Ogden, professor of health psychology and lead author of the study, says people’s weight loss also affects those closest to them, who may be struggling to deal with the change, both physically and emotionally.

“Weight loss often results in change, from giving a person more confidence to a change in social dynamics in their relationships,” Ogden explained in a statement tied to her work’s publication in Current Obesity Reports. “Many do not welcome such changes and may, consciously or subconsciously, try to derail a person’s attempts to lose weight in order to keep things the way they are.”

The primary ways researchers identified as inhibiting weight loss were: “sabotage,” “collusion” and “feeding.”

Sabotage applies to those who are directly trying to stop weight loss efforts and can be described as someone who is “active and intentionally undermining of another person’s weight goals.”

Examples include: discouraging people from switching to a healthier diet, putting up barriers to attending support groups and undermining efforts to increase physical activity by refusing to go or take part in exercise with them or highlighting the cost of a gym membership.

Feeding is what it sounds like: overfeeding even when the dieter says they are not hungry or when they have said they are making an effort to eat less or healthier.

Collusion is the least aggressive or intentional type of sabotage, even though Ogden noted it’s often seen as an act of kindness.

Researchers analyzing a number of studies finding examples of family, friends and partners colluding with those trying to lose weight through “going along” with their behavior when it is not in line with their weight loss goals.

The researchers also looked at the impact of intimate partners to see how negative support from a partner can undermine both weight loss and maintaining a healthy lifestyle.

Ogden says a support group throughout weight loss is imperative.

“People pursue weight loss for a number of reasons, be it for their overall health or to feel better about themselves,” she explained. “Support from friends and family can be an invaluable tool in helping people achieve their goals however sometimes those closest to them thwart their efforts by tempting them with unhealthy food or acting as a barrier in helping them adopt a healthier lifestyle.”