Nature vs Nurture

Starbuck2020

Just a few thoughts on my mind.

I was always the eat anything do whatever skinny girl. I had to get better eating habbits when I had children, because I wanted them to be healthy. Still...at a certain point I started gaining weight. Whether I ate junk all week or once a week I paid the price. My mother was the same way and it hit about the same age for her.

I have friends that eat a million times worse than I do and are as skinny as can be. When I worked out more I ended up just gaining. I know we can't blame everything on genetics, but .....

I really feel like there is so much more going on. Any thoughts?

Kaiukas

Sometimes when I read the posts here, I get the 'It's not fair' vibe. Of course I understand it, but I don't think that focussing on that is all that constructive. Yes, genetics plays a huge role in our body constitution. You can see how families often times have similar body shapes. Clearly it is not ONLY genetics as families tend to share similarities in their eating habits and lifestyles too, but if you look at where people store their fat (abdomen vs hips for example) or the lifespan trends (very slim as a young adult and considerable weight gain at a certain age), hereditary trends appear.

The most important thing is to acknowledge your predisposition and work with it. And thank your lucky stars in case your genetic lottery has only landed you with something that you can actually do something about, instead of an incurable disease.

Best of luck! :flowerforyou:

Starbuck2020

Didn't mean to give off that vibe. I really don't care either way. Just think it is interesting and wanted to know what other people thought about it. Even though I gained more pounds than I would have liked....I carry my weight well so I don't look "fat" until I have gained a LOT. lol Still, had to just eat less because working out did not help the situation.

Zomoniac

It's very annoying, I know. I'm two inches taller with a bigger natural frame than my flatmate, yet if I eat anything over 2,000 net a day I will start ballooning at an incredible rate. He can eat 5,000 calories of crisps a day and never exercise and still stay in perfect shape. The first big goal was getting past the bitterness, accepting that the genetics of anyone but me are irrelevant, and that being angry at my inherited non-functioning metabolism wouldn't get me thin. I've done that now. It might be an inconvenience that I have to put in so much more effort than some other people to get the same results, but that's how it is and it's not going to stop me doing it.

nxd10

Absolutely genes has something to do with it. It affects how you process all that food and especially things like how your body handles sugar and carbs.

On the other hand . . . There are four girls in my family - all over 5'10" tall (I'm the short one - everyone else is over 6'). Three of us were skinny as kids - one very skinny. The other a little overweight. But we all look very different now at 38-53.

My skinny, skinny, skinny sister now weighs 300 pounds - weight she put on in one year after she graduated from college.
My second sister, who was the heaviest one, went on a calorie counting diet and became extremely thin until she was 40 and had a thyroid problem that caused her to gain a lot of weight.
My youngest sister also weighs 300 pounds. She just spent the weekend with me and she eats more than twice as many calories/days as I do.

I was always careful with my diet and ate well and was a good healthy weight until I was 45. I gained 20 pounds over 8 years when my metabolism slowed down and I didn't slow down my eating to match. However, with MFP, I have just lost all of that, am a healthy weight (BMI 22, BF 27) and am well on my way to being back down to my college weight.

We all look pretty similar as kids, all have the same bad genes that lead us towards diabetes. But all my sisters have it or are pre-diabetic and I don't.

Yes, genes are really important. But so are food choices. I'm never going to be as skinny as my one sister or are my sons are. But I can keep a healthy weight.

TavistockToad

thats why there is no point comparing yourself to anyone else... there is always someone thinner/prettier/richer/better abs/longer legs/better hair etc etc etc who cares!

Chief_Rocka

Whether or not your diet contains "junk" is not what determines weight gain or loss.

sho3girl

thats why there is no point comparing yourself to anyone else... there is always someone thinner/prettier/richer/better abs/longer legs/better hair etc etc etc who cares!

Love this !

Starbuck2020

Whether or not your diet contains "junk" is not what determines weight gain or loss.

Well I like to think that if I eat healthy I will be healthy, so "junk" is a big negative. It does determine weight loss because if I eat 1000 calories in Broccoli it is different than eating a 1000 calories in cookies or a 1000 calories in whiskey.

TheRealParisLove

Some folks just have a more efficient metabolism than others. Some people are like gas guzzling muscle cars, and take in a lot of fuel just to get through the day. Others (and more commonly) are hybrids that need very little fuel to go a long, long way.

Mother nature built us that way to get us through famines and wasting illnesses such as dysentery or parasite infections.

Be proud that you are very fuel efficient, and brag to high metabolism friends that since you don't need to eat quite so much as their skinny selves, that you are protecting the planet.