Are Men Starting To Cheat On Their Partners After Rapid Weight Loss?

Why do rains always lead to excessive traffic? I was stuck on the road for a couple of hours when he asked me to turn around. "Super urgent" the text read. I'd known him for far too long to know he always meant what he said, or texted. By the time I entered the restaurant, he was down a couple of glasses of red wine. Malbec. I knew it by the smell. Tonino is quite the landmark, for those of you not familiar with Delhi. It's always been our haunt despite many new, cooler places having propped up. It's also the place he'd first told me about his feelings. For the woman he was now planning on leaving. It's become quite a pattern now – marriages are crumbling for the smallest of reasons. But what was his reason, I asked. Turns out, size mattered here too. After a steady 'diet' of Mounjaro, Pranav had lost over 20 kilos and found the libido he seemed to have lost a while ago. Kritika (his wife) wasn't able to keep up - "it's always something or the other with her & I'm raring to go. Better to part ways than cheat on her, isn't it?"  

Moral relativism, or should we find another term?

It doesn't take much for a marriage to meander. The slightest of disturbance can use turbulence. A crash, even. Sexual incompatibility is real, even if chaste couples might tell themselves otherwise. Affairs happen for a reason. Yes, cheaters aren't always looking for reasons, but a lot of them come from a place of sexual frustration. Don't shoot the messenger though – I'm just stating the obvious. But what happens when the incompatibility is newfound? Does losing weight often lead to 'losing' one's marital status?  

I met Karan over a quick coffee post work. His remarkable transformation is well chronicled online but only some of us know it's more Ozempic than clean eating. "My sex drive has been through the roof; though I do feel my own body image was stopping me more than anything!" This supposed sex drive was apparently the reason for his indiscretion that ended up in his separation from his wife. "I totally get why your friend wants out. Sex is important and if you're going to be married to someone, you have to ensure you're sexually aligned – I don't make the rules!" I rolled my eyes, and he pretended to not have seen. "But I'm trying to work things out with Pallavi – I still love her. Don't dismiss me as a philanderer, please!" I just smiled and sipped on my Americano. It's another story that Pallavi totally dismissed any chances of her taking him back and no, I didn't warn Karan – some rules are meant to be broken. 

An increase in one's libido post rapid weight loss is a rather common phenomenon. You discover a better, more improved version of your own self – that's bound to make you feel more attractive and, as a result, interested in exploring desires you had long left at the back of your mind. But should you not try and explore them with someone you're already dating or married to? "As if that's easy to ignite the fire when it's long done & dusted!" My pal Simrita isn't one to mince her words. Nor is her new husband, Ankit. They met on Raya – both joining the infamous dating app after their Mounjaro-led makeovers, eager to find 'love' after their first marriages ended in divorce. "You need to feel attracted to your partner which becomes difficult if you've had a transformation & they're reminding you of a past version – I'm sorry but it's the truth!" Like I said, Ankit wasn't minding his Ps & Qs either.

Alankrita was a tad more lucid, fortunately. I've known her for decades – she's a PR professional, which has probably taught to say things with a tad more tact. When we met over drinks at one of GK-2's newest watering hole, I was taken aback with how simply she put across her point. "I felt that I was a new person, and couldn't relate to the one who chose to marry him in the first place!" The version who chose to get married, is it? "My body image didn't allow me to fully embrace who I was & the person I wanted to marry – it's not too hard to believe, is it?" Umm... depends on who's asking, perhaps. "Once I lost the weight, I wanted to start afresh... in everything. I wasn't the same person, you know!" 

Do we end up losing a part of ourselves (in a good way!) when we end up losing weight? I wouldn't know but there's enough evidence to suggest it's indeed starting to happen. In UK, for instance, they're expecting a rise in divorce rates among people getting the jab. There's a study done in Sweden that's also warning of a 'divorce boom' post Ozempic & Mounjaro usage. There's no specific date point for India, but are the sign starting to show? Your guess is as good as mine. 

Turns out, relationships and marriages had anyway been unceremoniously ending. What rapid weight loss has done is given them another reason to get rid of 'excess baggage'. A shot in the arm (literally) for a whole new life – who said a man can't have it all!