Joint-work done by scientists from Dartmouth College, the University of Warwick, and the University of Leaven have shown that having fat ("heavyset") friends can increase your own size.

People are subconsciously influenced by the weight (and thus, lifestyle choices) of the people around them. Obese people oftentimes have obese families and friends. It isn't necessarily because obesity (ie. being unhealthy) is genetically predisposed in the family, it is often the lifestyle choices that the family makes that is to blame.

Professor Andrew Oswald at the University of Warwick, who worked on the study, says, "Consumption of calories has gone up but that does not tell us why people are eating more. Some have argued that obesity has been produced by cheaper food, but if fatness is a response to greater purchasing power, why do we routinely observe that rich people are thinner than poor people?"

"Rising obesity needs to be thought of as a sociological phenomenon not a physiological one."

So if you hang out with fat people (lets be honest now...), chances are, you're fat or will be soon. Just kidding.

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