Life’s like that.

I read an interesting article in the Straits Times on 27th July, that based on some study conducted, researchers have found that obesity is ’socially contagious’.

“Obesity is socially contagious and the risk is highest among friends: Study”

So this means that if you are getting fat, blame it on your (bigger) friends for passing it on to you… Why is this so? The article quoted a Prof Christakis as saying

‘You change your idea of what is an acceptable body type by looking at the people around you’.

Does it mean that if you want to lose weight, you should start hanging around with skinny people? Maybe spending more time with them, seeing them everyday, may change your idea of an ‘acceptable body type’ and you will start to lose weight and look like them.

But the article also mentioned :

‘We were stunned to find that friends who are miles away have just as much impact on a person’s weight status as friends who are right next door,’ said co-author James Fowler of the University of California, San Diego.

Which gave me an idea.

Maybe, as a skinny person, I should start a slimming program based on this. Here’s how the ad will look like :

Guaranteed weight loss program.
No supplements, no exercising, no dieting, no nothing!
You don’t have to do anything, just pay me to be YOUR friend!
In no time, you will look like me.

What you get:
I will acknowledge you as a friend.
You will receive a life sized poster of me.

What you need to do:
Look at my life sized poster for an hour everyday. (You can talk to it if you want)
Once a week, give me a call to ask me for my weight. (Should not last more than a minute)

*Note : You DO NOT need to see me at all, it works remotely!

The article also mentioned that ‘Gender also had a strong influence. In same-sex friendships, a person’s obesity risk increased by 71 per cent if a friend gained weight’.So if you want to reduce your obesity risk, you may want to consider getting into a ’same-sex friendship’ with a skinny person after the slimming program.

But no, I won’t be offering that service…