The Almighty Weight Fight - Environment vs Genetics

It's easy to argue that lifestyle choices and lack of willpower are responsible for our weight problems (it's the argument lean people tend to make). But it doesn't explain the 95 percent failure rate after two years of people who have lost fifty pounds or more; they had plenty of willpower to lose but regained the weight nonetheless. Researchers argue that obesity is more genetically linked than any trait except height - and at least 50 percent of obesity cases clearly have genetic components. The waist control game requires two players - environment and genetics. Even if your genes have made you predestined for a life of taking up two seats, that doesn't mean you should abdicate control over your body. When you make the right behavioral and biological changes in the book, You: On A Diet: The Owner's Manual for Waist Management
you'll be able to stay healthy and avoid the bad side effects of excess weight, like diabetes, high blood pressure (hypertension), and arterial inflammation. The biggest risk with these genes is not in the weight itself but in the predispositions for risk associated with obesity. One genetic problem associates with being overweight is called LEPTIN DEFICIENCY (leptin is a hormone associated with satiety). People who either don't produce leptin or block it's signals usually become morbidly obese, and the problem is surely genetic.

While some people have these abnormalities, they tend to be the minority of the population. If you need to worry about losing twenty-five, thirty-five, even fifty-five pounds, your problem is not likely to be genetic. Only when your excess weight exceeds one-hundred pounds would most doctors consider testing for genetic abnormalities. Still, leptin is only the tip of the iceberg as far as genetics and obesity are concerned. As the fight against obesity continues , we'll see more and more drug companies target genetic reasons for weight gain. The bottom line is waist management still falls on us, to improve our environment and our behavior so that our genetics can work for us, not against us.