love bites

After Getting Divorced, Men Get Fat

Photo: Mark Peterson/Corbis

Marriage makes people fat: This is an unfortunate epidemiological truth confirmed by study after study. But so does divorce, Ohio State University sociologists reported in 2011, and that’s especially true for men. The researchers analyzed data from the National Longitudinal Study of Youth 1979, tracking more than 10,000 individuals in the two years following a marriage or divorce. They found that men were 63 percent more likely to gain weight after getting divorced, when compared to the men who had stayed married; women’s chances of post-divorce weight gain, however, were about half that. It’s a reminder that marriage is associated with all kinds of health advantages for men, while divorce seems to take an especially hard toll on men in terms of health. Their risk of heart attack, stroke, and suicide increases after a marriage ends, research has shown, as does, apparently, their risk of eating their feelings.

After Getting Divorced, Men Get Fat