Marriage can affect your waistline

They say being married is good for health, especially for men. But as far as women are concerned, it turns out that they've to pay a higher price for marriage - extra weight gain.

That's the conclusion of the Australian Longitudinal Study on Women's Health, a 10-year study from the School of Human Movement Studies at the University of Queensland. The findings appear online and in the February issue of the American Journal of Preventive Medicine.

"The weight gain appeared to start when they married, then worsened when they had their first child," said lead author Wendy J. Brown, Ph.D. "There was no effect on the rate of weight gain of having a second baby."

From 1996 to 2006, researchers periodically surveyed a randomly selected group of 6,458 Australian women ages 18 to 23 at study's start.

"Women with no partner and no baby averaged 11 pounds over 10 years. With a partner and no baby they gained about 15 pounds, and if they had a partner and a baby they gained 20 pounds," Brown said.

"The so-called energy-balance variables like eating too much and moving too little had an effect, but the estimates of weight gain are adjusted for differences in these factors," she said.

Brown said that young women ages 18 to 33 are gaining weight at a higher rate than their mother's generation.

The expert added: "If it continues, this generation will end up with more health problems later in life. It is important to understand the causes of this weight gain."

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Regular yoga can trim Waistline

Is your waistline bothering you in middle age? Try regular yoga, says a new study.

The study, led by researchers at Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Centre (FHCRC), is the first of its kind to measure the effects of yoga on weight.

The study involved 15,500 healthy, middle-aged men and women who were asked to complete a written survey recalling their physical activity (including yoga) and weight history between the ages 45 and 55.

The study measured the impact of yoga with weight change, independent of other factors such as diet or other types of physical activity.

The researchers found that between the ages of 45 and 55, most people gained about half a kg a year, which is a common pattern as people age and do not trim calorie intake to their declining energy needs.

"However, men and women who were of normal weight at age 45 and regularly practised yoga gained about three fewer pounds during that 10-year period than those who didn't practise yoga," said FHCRC's Alan R. Kristal, study co-author.

For the study, regular yoga practice was defined as practising at least 30 minutes once a week for four or more years.

"Men and women who were overweight and practised yoga lost about five pounds, while those who did not practise yoga gained about 14 pounds in that 10-year period," said Kristal, professor of epidemiology at the University of Washington School of Public Health (WUSM).

What accounts for yoga's apparent fat-fighting potential? Kristal, himself a long time yoga practitioner, suspects it has more to do with increased body awareness than the physical activity itself.

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