Weight-loss surgery post-marriage can affect family bonds

Want to shed those extra kilos through weight loss surgery? Do it before you get hitched! According to a study, being married might actually work against those who want to put off weight, reveals a study.

The impact of a weight-loss surgery may affect an individual’s romantic relationships, and is likely to extend to the entire family, researchers from Ohio State University in the US warned.

Shifting behaviours and routines in a family can be unsettling — whether to spouses, partners or children — they added.

“Food is so central to family routines and celebrations, and when you undergo a surgery that so vastly impacts your ability to eat as you did before, family members take notice,” said Megan Ferriby, a graduate student at Ohio State University.

Married surgical patients were 2.6 times more likely to have not reached their goal a year after surgery, the findings showed.

It also revealed that unmarried patients were 2.7 times more likely to stick with post-surgical diet and exercise goals.

The study also found evidence that some patients’ marriages appeared to deteriorate post surgery.

The researchers elicited that the findings illustrate the importance of working with the patient’s family throughout the surgery process.

Spouses and other family members should be included in the conversations before and after surgery to give the patient the greatest chance of reaching his or her goal weight — and maintaining that weight loss — they suggested.

The researchers reviewed 13 studies published between 1990 and 2014 — that focused on the influence of marriage on weight loss after surgery, and the effects of surgery on the quality of marital relationships.

The findings were published in the journal Obesity Surgery.