Do Couples Gain Weight and Lose Weight Together?

Adam and I gained weight and lost weight together too! We both gained a lot of weight after we met and now (12 years later)I have lost the weight and so had he.

Oh, SO true! My husband used to love heavy meals and I always obliged, especially when we were newlyweds. However, we just moved into a new place and are talking about babies and are both focused on trying to get healthier. I have bought a lot less “junk” and more veggies and am giving him exercise tips. It’s wonderful

I’ve never gained weight with another person but I’ve gained weight due to being FRIENDS with another person. She was always telling me to just eat whatever.. and I did.. and gained almost 20 pounds. I love her to death but a part of me thinks her encouragement wasn’t as innocent as it seemed at the time.

You two look great and I can definitely see the difference in Eric. You must be so proud of him. :D

My girlfriend and I definitely gained weight when we first moved in together. I think this happens a lot – you feel the need to cook big, comforting meals to share together in your new home. Luckily, we were both able to lose together, too! I think it was total motivation to see the other lose weight and get into shape. We realized we were happier that way, too.

Now that you mention it, the last few seasons of The Biggest Loser have been done in couples (married, parent/child, cousins, friends, etc.) I wonder if we could tell if there were better results this way? I love the show, but I have some gripes about it (if you’re interested, you can see my last post). This ‘couples’ thing might be interesting to look at!

Yup, I think we both gained after getting married but we are both on a healthy track right now thank goodness!!

My husband’s weight and my weight definitely cycle up and down together. I do most of the cooking so when I’m on a healthy cooking kick, we naturally shed pounds; when I’m stressed and don’t want to cook, we gain pounds. Even though we’ve been together for almost 15 years, we’ve only been married 4, and we’ve definitely both gained since we got hitched. I think it’s also coincided with our lifestyles becoming busier though – we’re both working longer hours and not wanting to plan/cook as much, and no matter how healthy you try to eat on the go, it’s bound to catch up with you. We’re working on it though! Now that the weather is nicer we’re getting back into the habit of taking hour long power walks after dinner, and we’re trying to utilize more fruits & veggies which is easier to do now that more are in season. We’ll find our balance eventually!

Hi Angela! Great post! My husband and I both gained weight together after getting married and it actually started after we started dating. I ditched my vegetarian way of eating and followed his and together we gained weight. We are now keeping each other accountable and are weighing in together and losing weight together! It has been a great inspiration but it truly affects for better or for worse!

First–Love the new banner, just got a look since I am googlereader user. Nice job.

Second–You and your husband make a beautiful couple, and by that I mean not just your athletic, toned bods, but your wonderful spirits and energies too. You are such an inspiration.

I wish I had the same problem my live-in boyfriend does. Whenever he doesn’t work out he loses weight. He’s just naturally thin like a rail.

Your salad dressing looked so good, so I tried it last night on a salad (http://veganniche.blogspot.com/2010/05/garlic-daiya-pizza-chips-and-salad.html). Yum, thanks!

We actually traded weights almost to the pound. I was 5’6″ and 175 (which was good for me since I have PCOS and have always been heavy) and he was 6’5″ and 235, which I never thought looked bad at all. Within a year of us meeting and marrying (9 mos into the relationship, and now about to be 5yrs as Mr. & Mrs!), he got down to 180 and I ballooned up to 240. ACK! My problem was eating all the crap he ate (at first before he went polar opposite) as often as he ate it added with the stress of nursing school. All I did was eat, sleep, and study for 3 years! Ugh! He started eating less and less and running on his lunch breaks instead of eating (mostly because we were broke while I was in school and running kept his mind off eating), and he got quite thin, really. He looked amazing, but he felt horrible all the time. I looked AND felt horrible! At some point we met in the middle at 200 a piece, but I now seem to be stuck in the 220s, which is where he was himself until about 6 months ago when he started working out religiously and eating basically nothing but chicken, broccoli, protein powder, and eggs every day. He’s got an addictive personality (gave up smoking and drinking, picked up obsessive working out…. which is better…. I guess…) that lets him do that without problem, but I can only go a couple days with restrictive eating before I end up splurging on badness. lol I’m finally being treated for my PCOS and low thyroid, so at least I’ve stopped gaining every time I smell food. :) Now I just have to work on actually eating more than once or twice a day, since that’s just as bad as overeating (more so in my case because of the hormone imbalances). I’m hoping that once my hormones get in check I’ll actually have enough energy to start walking daily again. As it is now, the only thing I ever want to do is sleep… soooo exhausted all time! Ugh! Any way, good luck to everyone out there trying to meet their fitness goals. My attitude about it gets worse the more he gets obsessed with working out for some reason, so I’m just going to have to put on my big girl britches, suck it up, and get my fat a$$ in gear! :)

I know this is a few weeks old, but I’m still new to this site. Anyway, holy hell yes this is sooooooooo the case for me!!! I moved in with my roommate 2 years ago, and she is larger than I am, I have always been thin, but these past two years I’ve gained about 20 pounds!! I am still not fat by other peoples standards, but to me I am not at my comfortable weight. I have gone up in numbers, but really I go by how my clothes fit, and just about most of my wardrobe does not fit me anymore :-( so damn depressing!!! So I am loving your site and all of your amazing recipes and tips!! I went shopping yesterday and got chia seeds, and the amazing grass, and coconut oil or butter, not sure which one it is hahah but so excited to start cookin away!!

My boyfriend of 6 years and I have had the exact same experience! We were both a little on the chubby side when we first started dating, but we gained about 60 pounds each over the course of a couple years. I started Weight Watchers, and I dropped 20 pounds. Without much effort, he lost 30! Since then, we’ve both lost almost 30 more. He’s thinner than he’s ever been, and I’m finally back to my college weight. I still have 20-30 more pounds to go, but we look and live SO differently.

My husband (who is a foot taller than me!) and I totally gained weight together after getting married – A LOT OF WEIGHT. We called it the yummy phase, it lasted a while. We are still in the recovery! Ha ha! We were so happy and married (and young, 22 and 23) we just got a new house in an area with a lot of resturants. We ate out a lot, lots of garbage food and we gained and gained. One day we finally said this is insane. We’ve been slowly working our way down the scale together, more seriously in the last year 2 years. We are almost to wedding weight area 6 years later. The good thing about having a PIC (partner in crime) is that he is also my PIH (partner in health). We do yoga together, cook more inthe house, keep each other on the up and up to eat well and we’ve even started training for a couch to 5K together.

Great post, I definitely gained weight with my husband. Neither of us noticed until we decided to treat ourselves to some new clothes and were *SHOCKED* when we couldn’t fit our old sizes! We are working together to lost the weight now, and it helps that he is along for the ride.

Interesting question! I have eaten healthy my whole life until I met my Sweetie, who is Greek. After that I ate what he ate, white rice, white bread, sweets, lots of heavy meat, few vegetables and olive oil like it was a beverage. I gained 50 lbs and he gained 100, living our carefree being-in-love life. After 6 years, I have us both on a mainly vegetarian diet, mostly vegan we we are both feeling good. We have switched to my old way of eating and away from his. He has always had a weight issue but I didn’t. He is loving the food.

Thanks for a great and inspiring website!

I think this is among the most important info for me.

And i’m glad reading your article. But want to remark on few general things, The web site style is wonderful, the articles is really excellent : D. Good job, cheers

aw i just wanna say how adorable you guys are. the way he looks at you, the way you guys touch each other, in every pic. that’s real love. i have never had that, i pray one day :)
i have been more and more plant-based only for weeks and i can’t believe how much better i feel (and look!). i was veggie for four years but vegan and lots of raw is totally different. my gut and mind are so much happier. my journey was much like yours, never grossly overweight, sometimes real skinny due to stress and dieting and exercising that i didn’t love. struggling on the inside. going to look into your recipes now, keep up the wonderful work!