A research team at Penn State University in the US has found that women who tend to consume more food to suppress their emotions after a break-up gains weight, especially when eating ice-creams.
Eating ice cream to relieve your heart after heartbreak is not going to hurt you as much as you are thinking, but it makes you gain weight. Despite being emotionally disturbed, on average, more people do not complain of gaining weight after a relationship breaks up, but a new study has revealed staggering information. According to the researchers, it has been seen many times that sometimes people start eating more to suppress their negative feelings. Not only this, but they also move to unhealthy food items sold in the market.
Marissa Harrison, assistant professor at Penn State University in the United States and the lead author of the study, said, “Our research shows the fact that people are immersed in ice cream for a day or two to consume their gum, but when changing, have the tendency to gain weight after a break-up. ”He said that a break-up could make anyone tense and emotionally upset, due to which the emotion can bring about an increase in your appetite.
Hersin said, “If your partner leaves you, then your appetite increases a lot.” For the study published in the Journal of the Evolutionary Studies Consortium, researchers conducted two studies to examine this theory, exploring the extent to which weight gain can occur after a relationship breaks down.
In the first study, researchers conducted an online survey, which included 581 people. They were asked in the study whether their break-up occurred recently or whether they had increased or decreased their weight within a year of the break-up. Among the people involved in the study, 62.7 percent reported that there was no change in their weight.
For the second study, the researchers conducted a larger and different survey than the first study, in which they included 261 new people. In the new survey, people were asked whether they experienced weight gain or loss after the end of a long-lasting relationship.
Those surveyed were also asked about their ex-partner’s attitudes about how committed they were to their relationship, who initiated the break-up, whether the participants were attached emotionally, and how they enjoyed the meal in general.
The people involved in the survey experienced a break-up at some point in their lives. Most of the women – 65.13 percent did not experience any change in their weight after the relationship broke.
Harrison said, “The only thing we found in the second study was that women who used to eat when they were already emotionally distressed gained more weight after the relationship broke up. But it is not common. This is the reason why women gain weight after a break-up, the purpose stated in research.