Why do People Get Married?

With so many marriages ending up divorce, you have to wonder why people bother to get married in the first place. In conservative countries there is obviously still a certain amount of expectation that you will get married before having children, but in more liberal countries it is possible to live together and to raise a family without having to get married. You won't be judged negatively for deciding not to get married, although if you have been married five times, this may elicit a few raised eyebrows! After all, if you're not going go take marriage seriously, what is the point?

Most people who do decide to enter into matrimony probably are taking it seriously, though, and believe that there relationship is going to last. They ignore the fact that plenty of their friends' and relatives' marriages have failed and instead concentrate on making their relationship work. They want to get married to demonstrate their commitment to the person they love. Getting married enables a couple to stand up in front of witnesses and declare that they intend to make a life-long commitment to each other, and to celebrate this commitment with the people they care most about.

For some people, religion is important, so that marriage becomes a way of joining spiritually before the eyes of God. For others, marriage is a more pragmatic affair, giving each spouse certain rights within the relationship. When a couple marries, they cannot simply separate their affairs as easily as they could have when they were simply living together. Often, financial matters have to be sorted out and custody rights. Many people who get married feel that doing so offers them protection in case their spouse either dies or decides to leave them.

Even though in many societies you don't have to get married to live with your partner or have children, this is still the route that many people decide to take. When you're brought up by married parents and you watch friends and relatives getting married, you may be inclined to get married yourself. It is easy to build up an unrealistic picture of what marriage is and to visualise marrying the most perfect husband or wife and to have an incredible wedding day before going on to live happily ever after. Life rarely works out that way, though, and so things may not always go to plan.

You may fantasise about getting married when you're younger, only for you to have difficulty finding someone you actually want to settle down with. You may think you've met the person of your dreams, only for the relationship not to work out, or you discover that the other person is not interested in marriage. There is more to life than getting married, though, which is why you should enjoy the single life or being with the person you care about without fixating on the issue of marriage.

Can Getting Married Make You Fat?

Many people find that their waistlines begin to expand after getting married, especially women. They spend the months before the big day on a diet, shedding the pounds so that they look perfect in their wedding dress. As soon as the wedding is over it becomes more difficult to find the motivation to eat healthily and exercise regularly and so they slip back into their former routine, usually gaining weight as a result. You can't really blame marriage completely if you find yourself gaining weight, since it your actual behaviour that leads to weight gain, but it clearly has a role to play.

Marriage offers you a sense of security and you know that the person you are getting married to will love you no matter what your size, just as you will love him whether he is fat or thin. When you're in a happy relationship where you feel entirely comfortable with the person you are married to, it is easy to ignore your expanding waistline. Indeed, when you know you're gaining weight it can be tempting to avoid stepping on the scales altogether! You may pick up the bad habits your spouse has and you may be a bad influence on him as well.

You get into a routine and it's comfortable. It becomes easier to neglect your exercise routine and to eat convenience foods, especially if you decide to have children. When you fall pregnant you're going to gain weight and once you've given birth it can be hard to find the time to exercise and prepare home-cooked meals, so that you never actually lose the baby weight. It isn't just women who gain weight, though, as some men will also find themselves eating more than usual and not doing as much exercise during their wife's pregnancy, so that they also end up heavier.

The likelihood is that if you get married you're going to put on some weight at some point during the relationship, though it may not always be directly related to being married. As you get older your body changes and your metabolism slows down, so that it becomes harder to remain slim. This doesn't necessarily mean you'll become fat, though; it just means weight gain is more likely. Since marriage is meant to last a lifetime you're obviously going to be together a long time and as the years pass your weight may be less of a priority. There are plenty of people who would consider themselves fat and who are struggling to control their weight and not all of them are married. However, the relationships you have with other people – particularly your spouse – can influence the way you feel about yourself and the routine you develop, which may well cause you to pile on the pounds.