As some of you may know by my recent weight lifting threads…The Mrs. and I are getting re-interested in our physiques. We joined a local gym and have been working out, swimming etc…etc…This morning at 6:45 a.m. we got to the gym and we got on adjoining elliptical machines. We were chatting about our weights and how we looked when we first met etc…etc… and we noticed that were in damn fine shape when we were single. I weighed something like 205 or there about, I was ripped at that time. Not the pimple backed meat head ripped but the nice and toned well maintained ripped. She was very skinny as well when we first met. She weighed in about 115 and was well proportioned. We chaulked it up to being on the prowl.
Both being somewhat from the academic community we were thinking about the studies we have read and literature we have seen about human attraction and picking the perfect mate. Looks aren’t everything right? Well, the scientific community may think a little differently. This article cites things like height, and similar traits as indicators of attraction, it doesn’t rule out physical attractiveness.
Now this article looks at symetry and body physique. They scientist conceed that pheromones and symetry only truly get the foot in the door when picking a mate, the rest is left up to the cerebral cortex
ANYWAY! Back to my wife and I. We continued our chat and noticed at 7 a.m. there were mostly older folks in there and no one younger than ourselves - mid-30’s. However, in the evening the place is packed with younger folk…I wonder why that is?
What do you think? Married folk…what happened to your waist line? Are you eating three meals a day now? No longer on the prowl so what does a few extra twinkies mean?
I think it involves several working dynamics within us all to keep ourselves fit. I’m trying to pay it forward so I can enjoy our children well into the aging process. We’ll see.
I haven’t changed much since I became not-single, but I know many of my married friends have gained weight. The guys gain weight because their wives make them eat proper meals instead of eating, say rice cakes, cheese, and salad (my husband’s basic premarital dinner), and the women gain weight because they eat with their husbands, who eat more food for a longer time, and the women unconsciously keep eating as long as their partner eats.
Then pregnancy, and you’re never the same again. Or so I’m told.
When I was non-single the SO and I would go for walks together and prepare and eat propper meals.
Then I became single and now I don’t eat as well as I used to, I don’t exercise like I used to and in the past two years I got addicted to computer games and spend too much time playing those. After the the SO and I broke up I was very into staying single for a good while and it has been 5 years now and I am only just now starting to become interested in getting a girlfriend again. So as of late I’ve started to actually pay attention to what I eat and I have started walking again, but I am still 40lbs heavier than I was when I became single. So I have a ways to go to get back to the old me but I know it is doable.
Quite a remarkable theory! Women fatten up their husbands and accidentally fatten themselves by slipstreaming. Where did you come up with this?
I married my aerobics instructor when we were at our peak of fitness. Twenty years and two kids later we were both quite a bit chunkier (though I don’t think it was because of the way she fed me, I did most of the cooking). Then we got divorced and now we’re both svelte again. I think being on the prowl is a big factor, but I’ve known plenty of people who stay very fit throughout their lives just because they’re happier that way.
I’m within five pounds of my weight when I first met my wife (~19), but I’m significantly more muscular. I’m only 25 and childless right now though, so we’ll see if I can stand the test of time.
I’ve gained a lot of weight since I got married, but a lot of that has to do with the fact that now there is beer always in the house. When I was single I was swimming a lot and not eatting very well, after I meet my wife I ate more and better. But it turns out she likes beer so we always have it and I can’t help myself when there’s beer around. I am however a bit faster in the pool, and a bit better in shape because I’ve done more swimming. I guess if I could stop drinking I’d so thin it wouldn’t even be funny.
It’s entirely based on anecdotal evidence, and I’ll admit that it definitely isn’t true of everybody, but enough people who don’t know each other have complained of this to me that I think there’s some truth to it. You don’t necessarily have to have both halves present in the same couple - sometimes it’s only one or the other.
I am in better shape now than I was when I was single - I’m actually probably the healthiest I’ve ever been in my life.
My husband has gained about 10 lbs since we met, but that’s more the effect of moving back to MO, after living in Boston for 2 years where he walked everywhere. His eating habits are actually healthier than before since I do most of the cooking.
I was skinny when I was single, as I was essentially broke and spent what little money I had on booze, smokes and weed. Didn’t exercise other than played a lot of hoops. Drank and smoked a lot. Weighed maybe 175-85#.
Got married at 26 and stoped smoking.
Stayed between 185-95# for 10+ years, during which time I started working out more regularly at our workplace gym, as well as doing martial arts.
Probably in the best shape of my life at age 40, when I was doing MA pretty seriously, and put on 20# of muscle up to 215#.
After I busted up an arm and a leg, I did nothing for a year or so and that 20# turned to fat. Started running, and ran a maraton at age 44. Was down to 185#.
Now I’m still running, and up just over 205#. I eat better than ever, haven’t smoked cigs for 20+ years or drank for nearly 4. But tho I might be healthier, my body feels creaky at 46.
Not sure how well that answers the question. I never worked out or anything to attract women. (Of course, I never was all that successful at attracting them anyway!)
I’ve gained about 15 pounds since I stopped living single. But it’s also been 10 years – age 29 to age 39 – so maybe it would have happened anyway? My wife is a much better cook than I ever was, but I don’t think my caloric intake has changed much.
Ditto almost to the “T”. I however, became more sedentary in my work life, and all the fat deposited around my muscle. My once ripped abs became more of a blubbery six pack, I’ll never have a pot belly because I have too much muscle on my abs, but instead of ripped, I’m now sporting a slow wavey thing Thats soon to change.
I think it has more to do with the fact that I was 15 years younger than with me being single. Before I got out of the Navy, I was 6’2, 165lbs. I met and married my wife and we’ve been married coming up on 7 years now. I now weigh considerably more than that, but I also just don’t have the time to run like I used to. With one toddler, and another child on the way there isn’t that leisure to take an hour and a half to exercise…at least not at this particular moment on our lives.
I was thinking about this while running over lunch. In short, I lead a far healthier lifestyle now that when I was younger, basically because I feel I have to if I want to retain any ability to do what I want (and to reduce the chances of dropping dead in the near future).
Thats soon to change.