Skip to main content

Table 4 Self-reported reasons for weight gain: women with and without children

From: Magnitude and attributed reasons for adult weight gain amongst women at increased risk of breast cancer

Reason

Women with children (n = 327)

Women without children (n = 72)

Number stating reason

% stating reason

Number stating reason

% stating reason

Children / Childcare / Pregnancy

224

68.5

–

–

Inactivity

126

38.5

41

56.9

Comfort or boredom eating

114

34.9

39

54.2

Portion Size

100

30.6

30

41.7

Stress

84

25.7

26

36.1

Marriage / settling down

75

22.9

20

27.8

Work / Study

61

18.7

20

27.8

Menopause / HRT

58

17.7a

15

20.8b

Bereavement

59

18.0

14

19.4

Depression

48

14.7

16

22.2

Lack of time to prepare food

44

13.5

11

15.3

Takeaways / Ready meals

45

13.8

16

22.2

Alcohol

36

11.0

12

16.7

Food Preferences (own/family)

35

10.7

8

11.1

Giving up smoking

31

9.5

10

13.9

Health problems / Medications

33

10.1

5

6.9

Contraceptives

15

4.6

2

2.8

Cost of healthy food

10

3.1

0

0.0

Cooking skills

8

2.4

3

4.2

Lack of sleep / tiredness

6

1.8

0

0.0

Eating out

3

0.9

3

4.2

Fertility treatment

3

0.9

1

1.4

Social life / holidays

2

0.6

2

2.8

Sweet tooth

2

0.6

1

1.4

Carer

1

0.3

3

4.2

Divorce

1

0.3

1

1.4

Hysterectomy / oophorectomy

1

0.3

0

0.0

Premenstrual hunger

1

0.3

0

0.0

Progesterone replacement

1

0.3

0

0.0

Appetite / Hunger

0

0.0

1

1.4

  1. Excluding women missing percentage weight change (n = 32), women with percentage weight gain ≤5% (n = 12), women not giving reasons for weight gain (n = 72), women with unknown parity status (n = 5). Women could have been excluded for than one of these reasons. Participants could give multiple reasons for weight gain
  2. aIncludes all women but only n = 152 women known to be peri/postmenopausal women. Of peri/postmenopausal women, 58/152 (38.2%) gave menopause/HRT as a reason for their weight gain
  3. bIncludes all women but only n = 36 women known to be peri/postmenopausal women. Of peri/postmenopausal women, 15/36 (41.7%) gave menopause/HRT as a reason for their weight gain