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That is basically the dynamic of aging and weight gain because (pre ozempic) essentially no one loses weight in a significant way. So if every year there's a certain chance one gets fat, then every five years multiples that chance, and it catches most people eventually unless they're working to minimize it.
Maybe this is idiosyncratic to me, but in my mind being in a good relationship is encouragement and support to avoid bloating into a cave troll. My wife and I encourage each other to work out and stay in shape, both directly and indirectly. We hold each other accountable, we teach each other things, I go with my wife to get her an exercise bike off Craigslist. And because my wife is hot, I feel like I have to keep it tight if I want to keep her.
While I see a lot of bad relationships take a very crabs in a bucket mentality. One of my best friends from college got a little fat, started dating a guy who was a little fat. Now every time she tries to work on basic diet and exercise, her boyfriend (now husband) talks shit on her and sabotages her. And they've both only gotten fatter.
It’s also heavily weighted by social class and region. Among rich people in Manhattan being fat is unusual (especially for women, but also men) well into one’s forties and fifties, sometimes later. Obviously many of the women have some work done, but many haven’t and obvious TV license accounted for the cast of SATC broadly reflect the average hotness of many single women in that age and class bracket in NYC then; arguably it’s better now as subtle facelift and filler techniques have improved since the early 00s, see eg. Anne Hathaway at 41. By contrast it seems like in parts of the Midwest and South people give up almost universally at 25, the men usually after they stop playing sports after college, and the women when they get married or have their first child.
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