Overweight attributed to genetics???
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Somewhat. I've been eating on average 2500 calories (net) for quite a while and still never gain much. I've been between 97 and 104 pounds my whole life, never dieted..and I'm now quite sedentary. I do have family that eat less than me and weigh a lot more.
Who knows?
Methyl markers aren't the only way genes are turned on or off. Promoters and repressors that regulate how much a gene expresses itself into mRNA? and then translating into a protein?
Bodies have changing needs.
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I'm definitely fighting genetics as people in my family line are mostly 200+ some even 300+. Most of us are tall too, like I'm 5'8".
I'm 185lbs and see where a LOT of the weight of the weight will come off but I'm doomed with wide hips. I doubt I could get smaller than a size 6/8 or 140lbs. But, that is my goal, to get to that point at least. Once when I was 135lbs I looked absolutely anorexic. Maybe I will look not so frail and thin if I add muscle but get down to 135lbs? I dont know, for now...I'm working to 140lbs.
Genetics may play a role but it's not the end all, be all.0 -
Genetics are a huge contributing factor to weight and can make weight loss or gain very difficult. While we can all overcome the hand genetics dealt us, let's be honest some people will never be a size 2 and some people will never be a size 22, despite their best efforts to the contrary. That is why I don't understand why so many MFP members (not referring to anyone in this post) feel the need to insist on one size fits all methods to weight loss, when we are individuals and what works for you may not do anything for me. My father is in his sixties and can eat and drink what he wants and does not gain a pound. He is now and has always been a very thin man. My mother was thin when she was in her twenties but hasn't been smaller than a 14 since and at one point was a size 20. She absolutely has to watch what she eats and her exercise. And while she almost never drinks, which my father does a lot of, has never smoked which my father has done for 50 years, and eats smaller portions, she has high blood pressure, diabetes, 2 strokes and a heart attack. So for some the journey to being fit and healthy is much easier than it is for others. This can be frustrating and discouraging, but by no means a reason to give up.0
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Genetics play a role in your body type and where the fat collects on your body and yes, it is harder for some people to lose weight than others. HOWEVER you do not HAVE to be overweight. People tend to use genetics as an excuse for their obesity but it's really not an excuse. EVERYONE in my family is overweight. We are all short, pear shaped, hobbit looking things. However, I CHOOSE not to be overweight. I work very hard to maintain a healthy lifestyle and while it hasn't always been easy...it is doable. If you don't want to be overweight, you don't have to be.0
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The answer is simple. The slender people don't eat more than they burn, while the overweight people do eat more than they burn. It really is that simple.They do one of the 3
eat to much
exercise to little
Lie about wehat they eat
No Human can fight the law of energy in / energy out.
Even people claiming thyroid problems, It only accounts plus around 10 pounds the rest is over eating.
I under stand your three points. On paper it seems so simple. I know some people like about what they eat and how much they train. But how is it that there are those that eat garbage and tons of calories, more than they burn in a day and manage to stay slender. And then there are those, who should be slender because they train like beast, eat right, yet are still overweight.0 -
But really thr its genetic thing is an excuse, Anyone can loose weight it just takes a change forever.
Theres truth to this, some of the physiological disorders case a slow down in total metabolism, or it could be certain foods cause an inflammatory response. Would need to change the intake to keep it matched to the outtake
inflammatory response is a bad thing?Inflammation: Both Friend and Foe
Published by Harriet Hall under Basic Science,Herbs & Supplements,Nutrition
A number of buzz-words appear repeatedly in health claims, such as natural, antioxidants, organic, and inflammation. Inflammation has been implicated in a number of chronic diseases, including diabetes, Parkinson’s, rheumatoid arthritis, allergies, atherosclerosis, and even cancer. Inflammation has been demonized, and is usually thought of as a bad thing. But it is not all bad.
In a study in Nature Medicine in September 2011, a research group led by Dr. Umut Ozcan at Children’s Hospital Boston (a teaching hospital affiliated with Harvard Medical School) reported that two proteins activated by inflammation are crucial to maintaining normal blood sugar levels in obese and diabetic mice. This could be the beginning of a new paradigm. Ozcan says:
This finding is completely contrary to the general dogma in the diabetes field that low-grade inflammation in obesity causes insulin resistance and type 2 diabetes. For 20 years, this inflammation has been seen as detrimental, whereas it is actually beneficial.
Increasing levels of these inflammatory signals might actually be therapeutic in diabetes and obesity. On the other hand, they might worsen inflammatory diseases like asthma and rheumatoid arthritis. Ozcan’s findings are intriguing and might eventually lead to new treatments, but there are no clinical applications as yet.
Inflammation is part of the body’s response to infection and tissue damage, and it is crucial to the healing process. It is important for muscle growth with exercise, but conversely, chronic inflammation may be part of the reason for muscle loss in aging. When inflammation is chronic, it can lead to a number of diseases, from atherosclerosis to rheumatoid arthritis. Inflammatory markers are prominent in obesity, and higher levels are associated with meals high in calories and in saturated fat. Strenuous exercise markedly increases the levels of inflammatory markers.
It is simplistic to talk of “inflammation” as a single phenomenon, since it is a complex response involving many different physiological processes, from vasodilation to neutrophil infiltration, from the complement system to cytokines. And its relationship to health is even more complex. The human organism is a mesh of interrelated networks, and it could be hazardous to meddle with one element without understanding how our intervention might affect other parts of the system.
Certain foods are hyped as anti-inflammatory and certain dietary supplements are marketed with claims that they are anti-inflammatory. Integrative medicine guru Andrew Weil promotes both foods and supplements. Unfortunately, it is not clear that they can actually reduce the kind of inflammation that is associated with chronic diseases, or that such reductions actually prevent or improve the clinical course of those diseases. It is conceivable that they might lead to harm as well as benefit. If they really diminish the body’s ability to mount an inflammatory response, wouldn’t that also tend to impair wound healing and response to infection? Fortunately, most of the anti-inflammatory diet recommendations are consistent with consensus recommendations for a healthy diet (lots of fruits and vegetables, etc.). Anti-inflammatory medications like NSAIDs and steroids do reduce inflammation, but they have had limited use in treating diseases associated with chronic inflammation, and they have problematic side effects. In fact, steroids make people more vulnerable to infection.
For the present, we have only hints. Research like Dr. Ozcan’s will help us better understand the risks, benefits, and complexities of inflammatory processes. Meanwhile, it’s a mistake to oversimplify and to assume inflammation is always a bad thing, and trying to prevent or treat it with special foods and supplements is little more than a shot in the dark, a gamble based on speculation. Eat your vegetables and stay tuned!0 -
The problem of obesity is a relatively recent one in human history. Before the age of abundance and desk jobs, it simply wasn't a problem. Prior to the industrial revolution (circa 1850s) it was rare for a person to be overweight, with the exception of the rich and/or social elite.
There are still many hunter gatherer tribes still in existence in parts of Africa and South America. Certainly some of them carry genetics that may predispose them to being overweight, but NONE of them are. And so was the case of native Americans before they were assimilated into western culture.
Now given that humans are genetically unchanged for the last 100,000 years, these observations would suggest that lifestyle plays a much bigger role in obesity than does genetics. Certainly there are disorders that raise the risk that a person could become overweight, but these are rare - much more rare than the current obesity rate. And these genetics have been circulating the human population since before we entered the civilized era.
So no, I don't buy the fact that a person is overweight because of a "fat" gene. Human history doesn't support it.0 -
The problem of obesity is a relatively recent one in human history. Before the age of abundance and desk jobs, it simply wasn't a problem. Prior to the industrial revolution (circa 1850s) it was rare for a person to be overweight, with the exception of the rich and/or social elite.
There are still many hunter gatherer tribes still in existence in parts of Africa and South America. Certainly some of them carry genetics that may predispose them to being overweight, but NONE of them are. And so was the case of native Americans before they were assimilated into western culture.
Now given that humans are genetically unchanged for the last 100,000 years, these observations would suggest that lifestyle plays a much bigger role in obesity than does genetics. Certainly there are disorders that raise the risk that a person could become overweight, but these are rare - much more rare than the current obesity rate. And these genetics have been circulating the human population since before we entered the civilized era.
So no, I don't buy the fact that a person is overweight because of a "fat" gene. Human history doesn't support it.
Hmm, you should really read some more history then.0 -
The answer is simple. The slender people don't eat more than they burn, while the overweight people do eat more than they burn. It really is that simple.They do one of the 3
eat to much
exercise to little
Lie about wehat they eat
No Human can fight the law of energy in / energy out.
Even people claiming thyroid problems, It only accounts plus around 10 pounds the rest is over eating.
I under stand your three points. On paper it seems so simple. I know some people like about what they eat and how much they train. But how is it that there are those that eat garbage and tons of calories, more than they burn in a day and manage to stay slender. And then there are those, who should be slender because they train like beast, eat right, yet are still overweight.
Its not that simple in every case. I know overweight teens that live at a special school for overweight children. Each child is prepared all their meals and calories are tailored to each student's needs. They live on campus and arent allowed to have any money so they cant go out and buy extra food. Every student works out 1 hour a day with a personal trainer. Yet despite doing everything that they should be doing, there are still many of them that aren't seeing the results that they should be achieving. How can that be explained?0 -
Yes, genetics can play a role. There are some people who are more genetically blessed than others without question.
Although, genetics is blamed far more often than it should be.
Have you ever seen a random Overweight Somalian amist the crowds of staving people?0 -
Everyone gets dealt a set of genetic cards they have to deal with. I think the genetics behind obesity are really interesting, and I'm happy that it's being studied and researched. For practical purposes though, I think placing too much blame on genetics encourages victim mentality, and discourages people from trying their best to change their circumstances.
I have thyroid disease, and a slow metabolism that comes with it. I have to work really hard to overcome it, and I know that I always will. Those are the cards that I was dealt. I could sit on my couch and eat the amount of calories that the online calculators predict my BMR *should* be and continue to gain weight and complain about my thyroid, or I can get off my *kitten* and do something about it. It is possible to overcome these things, its just hard work.0 -
Genetics contributes, not dictates.
Anyone can lose weight if they do it properly.0 -
Genetics is an excuse. (That i used to use) Overweight in my opinion is FULLY attributed to eating the wrong foods. Eating man-made foods and excessive animal products pushes the caloric density of our diets way beyond what was found in nature for thousands of years. Man-made foods also can have addictive properties.0
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The problem of obesity is a relatively recent one in human history. Before the age of abundance and desk jobs, it simply wasn't a problem. Prior to the industrial revolution (circa 1850s) it was rare for a person to be overweight, with the exception of the rich and/or social elite.
There are still many hunter gatherer tribes still in existence in parts of Africa and South America. Certainly some of them carry genetics that may predispose them to being overweight, but NONE of them are. And so was the case of native Americans before they were assimilated into western culture.
Now given that humans are genetically unchanged for the last 100,000 years, these observations would suggest that lifestyle plays a much bigger role in obesity than does genetics. Certainly there are disorders that raise the risk that a person could become overweight, but these are rare - much more rare than the current obesity rate. And these genetics have been circulating the human population since before we entered the civilized era.
So no, I don't buy the fact that a person is overweight because of a "fat" gene. Human history doesn't support it.
Hmm, you should really read some more history then.
Really? Please enlighten me as to what historical event proves that genetics plays an overriding factor for the majority of obesity cases in the human population? I must have missed it.0 -
Genetics do play a role in the fat gain or fat loss / muscle gain or muscle loss, but everybody has the capacity to gain or lose fat and or muscle. As others in this thread have stated, your body type determines which diet/exercise plan would be most efficient for reaching your goals. The problem is that every fat person immediately assumes that they are an endomorph and every thin person believes that they are an ectomorph. This is not true. A body type only determine how easily one can gain or lose.
Most diet/exercise plans are not geared towards endomorphs, so the true endos will get frustrated and just blame genetics in the end. I do not blame them for giving up, I would too if everybody told me to do something and it wound up not working for me.0 -
The answer is simple. The slender people don't eat more than they burn, while the overweight people do eat more than they burn. It really is that simple.They do one of the 3
eat to much
exercise to little
Lie about wehat they eat
No Human can fight the law of energy in / energy out.
Even people claiming thyroid problems, It only accounts plus around 10 pounds the rest is over eating.
I under stand your three points. On paper it seems so simple. I know some people like about what they eat and how much they train. But how is it that there are those that eat garbage and tons of calories, more than they burn in a day and manage to stay slender. And then there are those, who should be slender because they train like beast, eat right, yet are still overweight.
no im sorry but the answer is not always that simple. like others have brought up, there are endocrine disorders that cause weight problems. i have one of them. it is called PCOS and 60% of women with this disorder are overweight. and it is because if insulin and hormone imbalances, which cause all sorts of problems. and until you have insulin, glucose, and your hormones in check it can literally be impossible to loose weight, no matter what you do. and even if everything is in check, you still have to work a LOT harder and a LOT longer to see the same kinds of results. EVEN if you are doing everything you should be. you can be doing the exact same eating plan and exercising as someone without PCOS. and while the other person can easily lose dozens of pounds in just a few months, women with pcos are lucky to loose one or two a month, if they loose anything at all. for us it is not simply calories in vs calories out. i am one that has struggled with weight. its taken me 5 years to loose 40lbs, a normal person could have easily lost that in a few months. so im sorry but you are wrong0 -
How do genes control energy balance?
The brain regulates food intake by responding to signals received from fat (adipose) tissue, the pancreas, and the digestive tract. These signals are transmitted by hormones—such as leptin, insulin, and ghrelin—and other small molecules. The brain coordinates these signals with other inputs and responds with instructions to the body: either to eat more and reduce energy use, or to do the opposite. Genes are the basis for the signals and responses that guide food intake, and small changes in these genes can affect their levels of activity. Some genes with variants that have been associated with obesity are listed in the Table.
Energy is crucial to survival. Human energy regulation is primed to protect against weight loss, rather than to control weight gain. The "thrifty genotype" hypothesis was proposed to help explain this observation. It suggests that the same genes that helped our ancestors survive occasional famines are now being challenged by environments in which food is plentiful year round.
http://www.cdc.gov/genomics/resources/diseases/obesity/obesedit.htm
worth reading if you want an actual informed and scientific answer to your question
and here's some more: http://rainhoward.blogspot.com/2012/09/is-it-genetic.html0 -
I think obesity is attributed more to environment than genetics. Genetics comes into play on how the body reacts to you abusing it with poor food choices.0
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Genetics is an excuse. (That i used to use) Overweight in my opinion is FULLY attributed to eating the wrong foods. Eating man-made foods and excessive animal products pushes the caloric density of our diets way beyond what was found in nature for thousands of years. Man-made foods also can have addictive properties.
I don't agree. If this were true then feeding experiments with controlled caloric intake and activity would result in the same weight loss/gain in all individuals but this isn't what happens.0 -
Genetics loads the gun, lifestyle pulls the trigger ...
^^This0
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