Find Out What 'Thinfluences' Your Weight

By Liz Neporent June 18, 2014

Environment may influence your weight as much as diet or exercise. Caption: Getty images.

People, places, and things. Those are the biggest influences on what you weigh, according to two Harvard health experts.

In their new book Thinfluence, Dr. Malissa Wood and Dr. Walter Willet - along with Dan Childs, managing editor of ABC's medical unit - claim that external factors such as friends, family, the workplace and advertising play a large and often overlooked role in a person's ability to maintain a healthy body weight. They point to research that suggests the likelihood of obesity increases by 57 percent if a close friend is obese, 40 percent if a sibling is obese, and 37 percent if a spouse is obese.

This week's ABC Health tweet chat discussed various 'thinfluences" and ways to counteract them. You can peruse the full hours' worth of info here or get a snapshot of the chat from the tweets below.