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Surprising new psychological study reveals weight gain doesn’t make people less happy

Science says happiness isn't measured on your bathroom scale.

Photo credit: Canva

Weight gain and weight loss don't really factor into a person's overall happiness

A new study from Germany shows that gaining weight doesn’t make people less happy. While obesity is still a public health issue in many Western countries, including the United States and Germany, and the impacts on a person’s physical health are well-known, there hasn’t been many studies regarding the psychological impact of weight gain or whether it hinders a person’s overall satisfaction in life.

Using a decade’s worth of data, Felix Bittmann at the Leibniz Institute for Educational Trajectories looked to see if there was any cause-and-effect relationship between gaining weight and losing happiness. Bittman’s survey sample included 8,815 participants aged 25 through 60, with the data collected from 2011 to 2021. This sample disregarded individuals with body mass indexes (BMI) that were underweight or extremely obese to eliminate any outliers from the results.

A close-up of a man holding up his belly fat.Adding on a few pounds doesn't impact your life satisfaction, according to a new study.Photo credit: Canva

Happiness was determined through a single-item question regarding life satisfaction on a 1 to 10 scale (one being completely dissatisfied, ten being completely satisfied). Using two statistical models to remove unchanging variables such as genetics and personality from influencing the data, it was shown that BMI had very little effect on a person’s happiness compared to other factors that impact a person’s life such as age, relationship status, employment, income, and geographic location.

Woman lying her head on a couch, frowning.If you are unhappy, losing weight might not be the answer to that problem.Photo credit: Canva

“Surprisingly, there is no evidence of a negative effect of obesity on life satisfaction,” said Bittmann in an interview with PsyPost. “In this respect, the study seems to me to be particularly relevant in demonstrating why so many people are overweight: it hardly burdens them psychologically, which is why they have little incentive to lose the excess weight.”

At one point or another in our lives, no matter if we are overweight, underweight, or at our physical prime, we have been fed the idea that weight loss can make people happier. It’s riddled in advertisements for weight loss supplements, health food, and exercise equipment among several other products. They may not always promise verbally that losing weight will make you happier, but it’s not unusual to think that when you see a “before” photo of a person looking down and lonely then an “after” photo of a person smiling, sometimes with friends and family after they lost weight.

This isn’t to say that a person shouldn’t be mindful of their physical health. Being overweight can increase the risk of heart disease, diabetes, and many other health complications.

A group of women jogging outsideWhen exercising or dieting, it's best to know the true intent behind it.Photo credit: Canva

However, this study shows that there are two separate, different goals here rather than one. It’s “lose weight” and/or “become happier” not “lose weight to become happier.” There are written pieces in Slate, Glamour, and theU.S. News and World Report among hundreds of others that share the same truth: you can lose weight but still not be happy.

If you’re in the midst of a weight loss journey, ask yourself, “What am I doing this for?” If it’s to improve your physical health at the advice and monitoring of a trusted physician, that’s a worthy enough cause on its own. However, if you are unhappy or think that losing weight will improve your happiness, you may not be addressing that issue effectively. If you are depressed or wish to become more satisfied with your life, consider looking into methods to directly address those issues such as a therapist or counselor.

Close up of a therapy sessionMuch like consulting a nutritionist for dieting, it's best to consult a specialist for your happiness and mental health.Photo credit: Canva

Much like how a dietician can help direct you in your weight loss journey, they could help direct you in your happiness journey, too. When it comes to your overall health, mind and body, it’s best to look into all potential possibilities and consult with professionals.

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Simple 'Lazy Girl Fitness' hack can help you have a gym routine that sticks

It's backed by science.

via Andrea Piacquadio/Pexels

A woman working out at the gym wearing headphones.

In 2018, author James Clear released “Atomic Habits,” a book about making significant changes through building small habits. The book's takeaway is that you don’t have to commit to drastic, overnight changes to improve yourself. You can do so by slowly working your way towards a goal.

"All big things come from small beginnings,” Clear writes in the book. “The seed of every habit is a single, tiny decision. But as that decision is repeated, a habit sprouts and grows stronger. Roots entrench themselves and branches grow. The task of breaking a bad habit is like uprooting a powerful oak within us. And the task of building a good habit is like cultivating a delicate flower one day at a time."

TikTokker Ashie Adams has a similar theory she calls the Lazy Girl Fitness hack. She says people can create a regular fitness routine by breaking a trip to the gym down into 2 distinct events instead of one that feels overwhelming.

“It’s my secret formula for making becoming a gym girlie happen,” she explains. "When you start working out, actually getting to the gym is 90% of the battle. You have to treat the action of getting to the gym and the action of working out as 2 completely separate habits.”

I never hear anyone talk about this so its my burden to bear i guess 🫶🏻🫶🏻🫶🏻 

@ashieadams

I never hear anyone talk about this so its my burden to bear i guess 🫶🏻🫶🏻🫶🏻 #fitness #fitnesstips #fitnesshacks #weightloss #weightlosstransformation #weightlossprogress #lifting

Ashie then breaks down the two distinct tasks: “Getting to the gym is a matter of waking up early, finding the time to do it, finding your workout clothes [and] getting out of the door on time,” she says in a video with over 500,00 views. “Working out is a matter of having the motivation and having the right workout program. But one cannot exist without the other, so the first habit to develop is just getting to the gym.”

The Utah mother says that for the first 30 days, people should focus on getting to the gym and little else. If you leave the car and enter the gym try walking on the treadmill for 15 to 20 minutes. Then, slowly, once you’ve mastered getting to the gym, you can start developing a workout routine.

Ashie says that this 2-step technique allowed her to build a positive gym habit without getting overwhelmed and quitting after a few days.

“Nine times out of 10, when I tried and failed to create the habit of going to the gym, it was because I was completely overwhelming myself,” she says in the video. “I wasn’t trying to do one new thing, which is work out. I was doing 40 things, [which] is genuinely too much for one person to undertake all in one go.”

The 2-step Lazy Girl Fitness hack doesn’t just sound easy and effective, it’s based on solid scientific principles. According to neurology researchers, micro-habits are one of the easiest ways to develop new routines. Micro-habits are small, regular behavioral changes that are easy to build into a routine because they don’t encourage psychological resistance and won’t disappear as willpower erodes.

Eventually, these new behaviors, such as driving to the gym or having a glass of water when you wake up every morning, become hard-wired into the brain, and you’ll start doing them without thinking. That’s when the real change begins to take place.

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Woman who went from a size 18 to a size 6 gets candid about her newfound 'skinny privilege'

"When I speak, people tend to listen more."

@megmackenzies/TikTok

“Skinny privilege is a thing, and even I find myself taking advantage of it.”

There are many different types of social privilege. We most often talk about the privilege associated with class, race or sex, but the inherent advantages of being thin are certainly substantial as well.

Take a 3-second scroll through your social media platform of choice, and you’ll see the endless messages—both insidious and overt—that glorify thin and/or muscular bodies while shaming other body types. Having a body that is celebrated by society offers benefits like respectability, kindness and even better health care. That is thin privilege, aka skinny privilege, in a nutshell.

And if there’s any doubt as to whether or not this privilege exists, take it from those who have lost weight and were suddenly treated differently (read: better).

Meg Stier, an actress and motivational speaker based in New York, is one of those people. Stier recently got candid about all the unexpected changes that came after she went from a size 18 to a size 6 in a video posted to her TikTok.

And while Stier noted that this was “not an attack on skinny people,” adding that they have their own problems too, her stance was clear that—at least in her own experience—skinny privilege definitely exists, and we need to talk about it.

@megmackenzies Anyone else experince these things? #bodyacceptance #nyc #bodypositivity #performer #lifestyle #weightloss ♬ original sound - Meg Mackenzies

The list included conveniences like being able to find her size in any store to being shown more basic human decency, like people looking her in the eye when they speak to her and actually listening when she speaks.

Even her career “took off” the moment she lost weight. “I didn’t suddenly become more talented, smarter or better at my job,” she said. “I just looked different.”

In fact, Stier can now make the same lifestyle choices she made when she was larger without outside judgment, simply because she looks different.

“Nobody judges when I order a cheeseburger or a salad. I can literally eat whatever I want in public, and nobody thinks twice about it” she revealed. She can also go to the gym without people giving her sympathetic looks.

“People considered me unmotivated, unhealthy, and in general just lazy because I was bigger. Those are three words that no one would use to describe me now, and my lifestyle really hasn't changed that much," she said.

“There’s a serious bias against fat people, and unless you’ve lived on both sides of the spectrum it’s hard to fully grasp what that means,” she concluded. “Skinny privilege is a thing, and even I find myself taking advantage of it.”

Stier is not alone in her experience. Her video received a ton of comments from other people who had lost weight and were treated better because of it. Some even shared the congratulations they got after losing weight due to illness.

Not only that, but there are literally thousands of videos on TikTok under the hashtags #skinnyprivilege and #thinprivilege reflecting similar stories, all attesting that it is in fact a real thing. Many even reflected on what it was like to gain some weight back and return to being “invisible.”

@itsmekelsc Today I chose the sassy life 💁🏼‍♀️ but it had to be said. The difference in treatment from strangers is WILD #weightbias #obesitybias #skinnyprivledge #obesity #weightloss #weightlossjourney #pcos #pcosawareness #mounjaro #ozempic ♬ original sound - Kelsey ✨

As with all forms of societal privilege, addressing the issue starts with spreading awareness. Social media might add to the problem with the way it often sells the idea of thinness and beauty as status enhancers, but it can also be a great tool in ending stigma as well. Conservations like the one Stier and others are having helps us take a closer look at our own beliefs and hopefully challenge them.

We’ve already seen the ways challenging the status quo can create actual change. The exploitative nature of capitalism aside, think about all the brands that have adapted to a more diverse, inclusive beauty standard due to real people taking a stand. Think of how much more body neutrality is a part of our collective mindset than it was only a few short years ago. Clearly, we still have ways to go, but part of progress is getting real with what’s in front of us.

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Jessica Simpson is pushing back on praise for 'snapping back' after pregnancy weight gain

upload.wikimedia.org

The process of getting your body to return to normal after delivering a baby can take time.

Most bodies don't just "snap back," and it can take from six to eight months for the average woman to feel mostly recovered from having a baby. It's also totally normal to retain weight after giving birth. Most women keep on 11 or more pounds. But there's still a stigma on postpartum bodies. As if the pressure that comes with having a newborn child isn't bad enough, women are also often pressured to make their bodies trim and slim faster than is medically safe.

When Jessica Simpson was pregnant with her third child, Birdie Mae, she was open about the changes in her body. Simpson would post photos of her swelling belly and swollen feet on Instagram.

RELATED: Here are the ways your body changes when you're pregnant that nobody talks about

Simpson was delightfully honest, saying she weighed 240 pounds. She even posted a photo of the toilet seat she broke, because that's something What to Expect When You're Expecting conveniently leaves out.

After Simpson gave birth to Birdie Mae in 2019, she continued to be open and honest about her postpartum experiences. Simpson posted photos of her workouts. "I am working really hard right now," she told People at the time. "It's not easy at all, but I am determined to feel good. I have been doing a lot of walking — getting my steps in not only burns calories but it also helps me clear my head and get focused."

Six months after giving birth, she posted a posted a photo of her body after losing 100 pounds of baby weight. Commenters on Instagram praised Simpson for "snapping back."

RELATED: James Van Der Beek's pregnancy announcement casually helps destigmatize miscarriages

In her new book, Open Book, Simpson reveals that she didn't post photos of her body to get compliments for snapping back. "Even now, people [are] commenting on my Instagram, 'Oh, snap back?' No, it wasn't a snap back and I don't even know what that word means," Simpson wrote in Open Book. "It's like, I work hard and when I work out, a lot of it is to release anxiety. That's one of my tools for sobriety. Just walking, just going and talking, walking and talking with my husband. Even some of my biggest fans…They're saying it as a compliment, but it's like, that's not what I was trying to get with this picture but okay."

Ultimately, Simpson is glad that extra weight doesn't carry as much weight as it used to. "I just thank God times are changing a little bit and people are standing up for themselves and making it not all about body image. I can hopefully be part of the change that my daughters grow up in a world where she can accept herself at any size," Simpson wrote.

Having a healthy postpartum body is more important than having a skinny postpartum body, and it's refreshing to see more and more celebrities acknowledge that.

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