This would be applicable to adults.
I wonder what is the influence of mother on young children?
In my experience, an obese mother might make kids obese as a by-product of her eating habits- and that is bad!

What a big surprise! People hang out with people whose behavior and tastes are similar to their own. Or else, perhaps, people influence their friends' habits. Studies are getting sillier and sillier!

The most important information in the study from the New England Journal of Medicine is at the end of the main posting. People who get together to exercise have more success than those who try to go solo, and exercise is so important to our health in so many ways. Not only do you burn calories and improve your fitness level, you also feel better about yourself for having done something good for you. If you workout with others, there are also the added possible benefits of support, acceptance, and friendship with people trying to achieve similar goals. Exercising (particularly with like-minded people) can put you into a positive spiral where you want to watch what you eat and you can't wait for tomorrow's exercise group. I don't have any association with the Running Room, but I DO think they have done a great thing in getting people together for supportive exercise.

Here's a thought,... instead of going out with a friend for that cup of coffee and donut, why don't you tie on the runners and go for a walk together instead. You will feel so much better for it and you will have burned off calories instead of adding them to your daily total.

to cathy h

Regarding saboteurs: It takes a strong will to take a stand and stick to it.

I've not always been successful, as sometimes it's just "pick your battles" and I've taken the freaking thing just to shut them up... Then the dichotomy comes, "Oh you're not really serious about your weight then..." can't win for losing, if pleasing other people is the objective.

I've come to the conclusion that the responsibility lies with me, EVEN IF people are going to object or protest, either passive-aggressively or blatantly.

If I know that "food x" triggers an addiction response, then no way no how, is anyone going to talk me into consuming it. It's definitely an addiction, because once offending food x is out of my system altogether, there can be piles of it in my house (I don't live alone) and I'll be oblivious.

So my addiction, my responsibility. Damn the torpedoes.

It's not about buying into a study. It's about making choices, choices for which both have pros and cons.

I find the study to basically be preaching to the choir. Anyone knows that with more support, a lifestyle is more easily attainable.

Yes, we all have choices. I've had to ride against the wind sometimes in the face of eyerolls and "one piece isn't going to make you fat.... come ON! Just use moderation! Don't deprive yourself!" It forces me to make decisions about what's important, "fitting in" with my "friends", or feeling amazing physically, but quite often, that is what people ARE faced with.

For some people, "moderation" for certain "social" foods (which often are not food, just junk in a pretty wrapper)just does NOT work. It's far easier just to forget eating it altogether, than to fight the cravings that follow after eating "just one". But it's my responsibility to say "no".

Hmm....were there not similar studies already published about smoking and drinking (alcohol) that showed the same results?
It should be no surprise that you hang out with people who value the same things as you do regardless of whether it is food, smokes, drugs, fitness, exercise or healthy lifestyle.

In response to the article as well as a few of the comments:

Studies are conducted, even though they may seem common sense, to bring a more formal backing to a well-known idea. In this case, we would think it obvious that peer pressure (not restricted to the adolescent years) effects how we eat and whether or not we will in fact gain weight, the study just goes to prove further the idea and besides it sounds a lot more professional in a conversation (superficial, I know).

there was a comment about aerobic exercise being ineffective for long term weight-loss. Of course if all you're doing is running, it will be. Drop by a high school gym class sometime and see what they're teaching. A combination of weights and aerobic exercise will help. Another thing the class will teach is that you have to increase your time/speed after it becomes too easy. Your body will plateau; it's natural that it'll become accustomed to the exercise.

What surprises me is that rarely is it mentioned that if you plan to lose weight by exercising, that it has to become a permanent fixture in your routine. Not reach your goal, then celebrate by indulging in a tub of your favourite ice cream and cake for the next week (exaggeration nevertheless). So, exercising in a group helps: women will encourage and try to out-do the smallest dress size and men will try to out compete each other.

Here, peer pressure is positive.

I just want to say how pleased I am that the cbc presented this information in a serious and mature fashion (as all news should be). This morning I was watching the same study being presented on Robin and Co (CNN) and Ms. Meade made jokes about this report which were both demeaning and juvenile. Humour has it's time and place in the news but should not be used to riducule others - in this case, those who are overweight. Thank you cbc for not being cnn.

Interesting comments!
A few certainly raised my eyebrows to say the least.
This study basically deals with what health promotors refer to as the psycho-social aspects of disease development.It has been known for some time that individual behavior can influence the behavior of others close to them in many direct and even very subtle ways.
Just as group behavior can influence the manner in which an individual can think and subsequently act, this study illustrates an important factor in lifestyle dynamics. This acceptance of human lifestyle choices from those to whom we are close can have a very important impact upon our health.
Parents, spouses, friends and those in positions of influence take serious note!

Who dreams up these studies? Not only are they pointless, they dont tell the entire story. It's like the old tobacco studies done in the 50's (funded by the tobacco industry of course) that showed no link between smoking and heart disease/cancer. What is this report really saying? However you do it, obesity comes down to calories in/calories out. So does it placate our lack of activity/eating habits/self-esteem to befriend others with the same ideals? People go to McDonald's in droves, even knowing that a big mac and fries has 1100 calories, 57g of fat, and a whopping 1.5g of sodium. How can anyone think that eating like that could not be self-destructive?
A long time ago, we bought into the sheep mentality. Society formed language, enterprise, customs, laws, morality, and even diets. Today it seems to mean that our vices are ok as long as others have the same vice. With all the information about food/exercise at our disposal, I dont get how we allow ourselves, or someone we call friend to become obese. My wife and I are very lucky that our closest friends are very active like us. It's easy for us, because at 50 (almost) we are empty-nesters, but we all like to eat healthy, and all it takes is for one person to want to go for a ski, golf, run, etc, and the group does it. In a recent "study" in our group, I found out that 3 out of 4 people make up 75% of the group.

why are $ spent on such a study when they could be spent on encocuraging ALL Canadians young and old to BE ACTIVE.

When young teens are "forced" to take just one Phys Education credit in high school, when being active is such an important part of anyone's day, seems like the Ministry of Education might turn the table on making obesity studies unnecessary.

With a dailty pro-fitness attitude, which could be encouraged in the schools, at home, and in the community centres, governments might lower their health budgets on such things as diabetes and some of the risks factors that come with being overweight.

Make sense to me. Let's start young and make lifelong habits stick. Children naturally play, so should adults. then we wouldn't need $ to be spent on such studies.

crazy western world. would such a study be done in a so-called underdeveloped country, that's what I wonder.

The article and now the numerous reports on television have my mind racing a mile a minute. My imagination is a powerful thing and I have everything from fat people only buses and water fountains, to skinny people running away from fat people afraid of catching fat as though it were a virus, going through my head. To me some of the visions I have are hilarious (especially the one where the skinny people are running, because in my head Im chasing them with my hands like the claw, and growling), but some of them make me sad. They make me sad because history has proven that people are hateful, and cant wait to jump on the next big group think (again a great visual of a brain shaped bus with all these people jumping on board as it drives by).
It seems to me that this is a case of the media going way to far and irresponsible reporting. Why is this study not being reported as something to laugh atit should be. The average weight gain for the participants of the study was 5-10lbs. How does this not make people question BMI as a respectable measurementif 5 lbs pushes you over the edge into the obese category doesnt it make you think that perhaps BMI is a crock of? (theres a whole other rant waiting to happen here!) Seriously, its laughable that this was reported as an accurate finding. People all over the world are right now trying to figure out how to break up with their fat friends, or to start spending less time with themor maybe they are thinking of ways to make their fat friends more active (nothing like some good ole fashioned patronizing).
Or maybe, just maybe, people all over the world found this to be as big a lark as I did, and are having the same problem with their over active imagination, and are having visions of an old VW Bus with a drum set, and the name (in groovy 70s writing) Band Wagon painted on the side, driving down the street, and all these people are jumping on as it drives by, while other people are throwing food at them

This study is about pinning down the odds on one of many variables.
With some dunder heads getting the idea that increased possibility means absolute yes shows we need to work on education issues as well as health issues.
More likely does not equal yes it will.
It means there is another piece of the puzzle that must be accounted for when addressing the issue.

There's a lot of good and not so good in the comments so far. I'm glad someone's speaking up against this stupid BMI that most doctors and insurance companies hold as sacred as the gospel - it does not reflect muscle mass, and can even be wrong if someone is massively over-fat as well.

Exercise in itself doesn't make you slimmer? Yes and no. What weight training does, is add to your muscle mass. The muscles mass increases your metabolism. This increased metabolsim helps burn existing fat and the nutrition you eat. (Simplified). So yes, weight training helps (as long as you lift heavy enough to challenge yourself and not just what you can easily do).

Ehat helps even more, in a combination with weight training, is cardio. Not the modern time saver shortcut HIT/HIIT cardio so largely advocated these days, that's a shortcut to nowhere except good conscience. 40-minute steady-state fasted cardio (straight out of bed, before breakfast) is the very best to get your metabolism going for the day.

Of course, it is true that you will also need to clean up your nutrition, that goes without saying. Some say the nutrition part is 80% of your success. Training being 20%. BUT ...

A couple of things.

BMI and the fact that it is "total garbage". For every generalization over a wide population (which BMI is - a generalization) there are exceptions, and any reasonable person will know this. People are so passionate about BMI and it's negatives and I find it quite suprising. Our society is based on generalizations. For example: smoking increases risk of heart attack (and it does) but not every smoker has a heart attack - it's a generalization. I think BMI really pushes people's buttons because weight is an extremely sensitive issue. I am wondering if anyone has met someone with a 35+ BMI who looks skinny/underweight or an >18 BMI who looks obese.

Anyone can say what works and what doesn't. The bottom line is to balance our social activities, eating habits, and physical activity. I can't tell anyone what their balance is. What I can say is that you have to find it for yourself, and have the wherewithal to follow through on your goals and manage your life.

This article is total and pure common sense. But do yourself a favour - if you become obese don't pin the blame on your friends - it takes 2 or more to engage in social activity and we all have to be accountable for our own lives and actions.

Ah, the obesity witch hunt continues. This nonsense is a classic example of causation inferred from correlation. To make the conceptual leap that befriending the obese *causes* one to gain weight is patently absurd.

If this drivel is to be believed, then without your knowledge or consent, your best friend's beer-guzzling uncle (whom you met just once) is slowly, insidiously changing your waistline for the worse -- yet another instance of the fat brigade stripping you of your precious, hard-earned wellness.

Those deemed undesirable by the elite are vilified by stigmatizing them as "diseased." From there, a bogus pandemic is fabricated in order to create the appropriate level of perceived threat. Under such a scenario, panic appears the only sane option.

How can you combat the shaming, blaming, and mounting attacks? Don't believe the hype. Use your critical faculties. Be especially vigilant when vicious, discriminatory claims against an outgroup are couched in pseudo-scientific bafflegab.

All of my friends order beer when we go out. In fact, it's the default setting for making plans "let's go for a beer!" I was doing the beer thing for a while too - even though I never really enjoyed it (beer makes me feel bloated - though I'll have a very light beer on a hot day). The more I'm honest with myself the more I realise that I was likely ordering the beer just to be convivial. I didn't even like the people I smoked with!

Quiting smoking 12 years ago was a bit of a social eureka moment. I discovered that there's a certain element of peer pressure or "going along along with the gang" that comes to play in our social lives well beyond high school.

Eating or drinking certain things simply because everybody else is doing so is not doing your social life any good. Just because your pals like to have three pints of beer doesn't mean you have to. And if they give you a hard time, you give them a hard time right back. And yeah, though you may stand out for a time and seem like a sissy or precious sports nut your friends may come to admire your conviction and strength to make decisions for yourself - rather than submitting to a group mind.

I think a lot of us use conviviality as an excuse for our own indulgence. "I'll have what she or he is having" extends to health problems as well as tasty items on a menu. Every time you agree to eat what your friends are eating you're also agreeing to take on whatever health problems come with those choices.

I'd like to believe this isn't true but in my case it is. I'm far from obese, but since I started dating an obese person (2 years ago) I've put on easily 20 pounds!

In past relationships, I've had rock climbing dates, ice skating dates, long walks, swiming and all sorts of other activities. Since my current boyfriend has no interest in anything that can be considered exercise our dates are in movie theaters and resturants.

This article opened my eyes to this, I'm going to try to get my (now semi-healthy) life style to rub off on him, instead of his (very unhealthy) lifestyle rubbing off on me