Choosing reduced-fat friends

A new study that says obese people may make their friends fat raises more questions than a bag of fortune cookies.

The study used 32 years worth of data from a Framingham, Mass., heart study to track weight patterns of more than 12,000 of the town's residents. It reconstructed a network of family and friends then studied the effect of their weight gain or loss on one another.

Neighbors' plumping up didn't have much effect on each other, and family influence was limited. But for every 17 pounds one overweight friend gained, his or her buddy gained five.

What this all means is confusing. It could mean that people unconsciously use their friends as a measure of acceptable weight and drift toward their size. It could mean friends mimic each other's lifestyle habits.

But one has to wonder if there aren't other factors at play. Friends often share similar educational and income levels, often hold some of the same attitudes, have similar interests and are in the same age range. That's often why they're friends.

So is the friend factor really so much of an influence, or is it simply that people with the same interests and living patterns tended to share the same weight-gain patterns?

This study won't change my belief that the long-term solution is concentrating on healthy habits not weight, falling in love with some kind of exercise and only making changes that you can live with forever.