Is Being Overweight Genetic?
Rap songs always talk about a woman’s figure and say ” She get it from her mamma.” She may get those breasts and hips you like from her mamma, but she just might get that spare tire around her middle from her family too. Can you blame your Great-Aunt Andrea for the tire around your middle, or your thunder thighs? Is it your Grand-Daddy Joe’s fault that gut keep sneaking up on you?
Interesting facts from B-Net - Genetics may play a role in why some people seem to gain weight and others don’t. , David West, a geneticist and obesity physician at Parke-Davis in Alameda, California, says, “Some people have the good genes, some people don’t. Some patients, especially the very morbidly obese, are pretty much a biological problem. They have a real nasty set of genes. As long as they have enough calories to eat, they’re going to be fat no matter what environment they’re in and despite their best efforts.”
Nevertheless, West says most people don’t get fat unless they follow a certain style of life. To gain weight they have to work at it: sit behind a desk all day, wolf down a big lunch, collapse at home with a few beers, then wake up the next day and repeat the process. Genes may make them susceptible to weight gain, but a fattening environment makes the gain happen.
Other researchers have shown that exercise has remarkably different effects on different people. When people exercise regularly for three to four months, their bodies can change dramatically: their hearts and muscles get stronger, and they can exercise harder for longer periods. But that is not true for everyone.
Several associations between weight and hereditary genetic factors have been identified. These include:
- Intra-abdominal fat (fat around abdomen) appears to have a genetic link in the majority of cases.
- Genetics may affect the type of Basal Metabolic Rate we have. A lower-than-average BMR will lead to a tendency to gain weight.
- Appetite can be affected by hereditary factors.
- Genetics can affect the amount of fat and muscle in our body. This fat-muscle ratio has a direct effect on our BMR and thus on our weight.
- Our Thermogenesis - the amount of energy we need to metabolise food - may be affected by genetics. This, too, is likely to affect our weight.
However, it is now widely accepted among weight researchers that a person’s particular complement of genes determines what activities make him or her susceptible to weight gain as well as how strong that susceptibility is. The bottom line is that genes alone don’t make people fat. All of us simply have a greater or lesser genetic tendency to gain weight. Those with the strongest tendency–the worst combination of genes–are almost guaranteed to join the minority of people who weigh 300 pounds and up. The rest lie somewhere on a continuum that extends all the way down to those lucky people who can eat all the doughnuts they want and never need to punch a new hole in their belts.
Bottom line- don’t blame your thick hips on your genes. Change your habits and make changes in your life for better health.
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