Is it greed or is it genetics? Why are you fat?

I can't speak to everyone's situation, but my weight gain was related to over-eating and poor food choices.

I think there are those who are predisposed to weight gain--but it isn't necessarily a life sentence to obesity.

There are also medications and medical conditions that cause significant weight gain that may be hard to control/prevent.

It's eating too much. Call it greed or whatever you like.

No I don't think your genes make you want to eat. You've been taught that food fixes things. My daughter in law is obese as is her whole family on both sides. She's always blamed in on her genes but standing back and watching how they interact and how they use food it's so obvious that food is how they handle everything. It isn't wanting food it's that food is what you do when you're celebrating, what makes you feel better when you're sad, what you do when you're angry, how you reward children, show love to your spouse, etc.

We have 3 granddaughters that I didn't want to be raised to be obese and unhealthy so we talked about her food issues when the first child was born and that the cycle had to stop there. She's been really good about not using food for rewards, having healthy choices available for snacks, and teaching the kids not to have that bad relationship with food. I have 3 thin healthy granddaughters who don't seem to have gotten the "genetic" predisposition to being obese that her family all claim as an excuse.

I do not believe there is an "overeating" gene. Overeating is a learned function. The reason the children of obese parents usually become obese themselves is because they are immersed from birth in a lifestyle of over indulgence of food and usually little to no exercise activity.

I became overweight because my activity level changed drastically when I went into my 30s but I continued to eat at my previous levels of intake. I come from parents who were both obese when I was growing up...I just happened to be a pretty good athlete and very involved with sports and athletics so I burned everything off. My mom is no longer obese...she's 60 and does triathlons...my dad is still obese and suffers all of the ill effects of full on metabolic syndrome and also has heart issues because he never determined to change the way he was living.

I've just watched the programme 'Half Ton Man' and the bloke insists that it wasn't greed that drove him to eat it was genetics. For those science geeks I know all about the hormone Leptin and it's effects of the body but I just wanted to know everyone else's opinion - why do you think you became overweight?

I am not looking to insult or pick a fight with anyone, let's have nice clean conversation.

Me personally? I want to say genetics, my mother's family have struggled with their weight. However, I largely believe it is my emotions that drive my eating, so much so that sometimes I feel I resort to eating whatever mood I am in, like I have conditioned myself to want food in times of happiness, sadness...in fact all emotions apart from anger when in fact I actually just want to clean! I need to be angry more often lol. Could however this still be genetics or am I trying to blame something?

Of course there are individual differences in the hormones that create a desire to eat...so it is impossible for anyone to know how bad anothers cravings for food are. So yes genetics play a role in how much you crave food for sure. BUT despite this it is still possible to not give in to these cravings. As for genetics actually being directly responsible for someones obesity-->BULL**** (except in a very small portion of people with some sort of disease (VERY RARE))

You have some who say obesity is all genetics, some who say it is all due to gluttony. Truth is it is somewhere in the middle probably closer to the gluttony side. It is possible for any normal person to be a normal healthy weight. It will be harder for some due to hormone, metabolic, etc differences but it is still possible. 99% of the people who say "I can't be skinny, my genetics wont let me" are eating above their maintenance caloric rates and would lose weight if they ate below these levels.

Edit: I'd like to add a large component as well: Socioeconomic status- Those who have low SES have trouble eating healthy for the following reasons: They are uneducated on how they should be eating, they do not have enough money to eat healthy, they face more stress than other classes which is sometimes met with overeating as a coping method, they do not have time to cook healthy foods (working long hours in low paying jobs/usually have many kids/exhausted from physical jobs)

It is "physiological". Our body's need 3 major things to function properly: 1. Air, 2. Water, 3. Food.

Since we as babies do not come with instruction manuals on proper nutrition, it is easy for us to be placed on a path to obesity.

Partly it comes down to genetics, ( slow metabolism, difficulty putting on lean muscle etc)

It's been proven that the vast majority of humans have metabolisms very close to the same. Only the odd person with some disease factor has an appreciable difference. Even the dreaded starvation mode is for the most part bunk. Saying you have a slow metabolism is another excuse for poor behaviour.

Well my weight took about 8 years to add on including two operations involving abdominal incisions.. I was slim till I was about 37 around 50 kg now 45 and was 82 kg at the start of my fitness campaign - beginning of April and now 69 Kg.. So I wanna loose around 18 kg..

I've been greedy when gaining eating Doritos by the family pack 1 night a wek and drinking 1 and 1/2 bottles of wine 2 times a week - also portion sizes and rich foods and more deserts without a thought..

What started me piling on more on more weight - passing my driving test in 2007, thyroid in 2005-2007, fibroids and then sub total hysterectomy in 2009, having a hernia and then having that repaired in 2010... And generally getting into a rut...

Yes I think sometimes people can put on weight due to genetics - often like me perhaps it can be a combination of many factors...

Getting into a rut seems to be a big one??

I mean beginning of August -.when I started to concentrate on getting fit and loosing weight - whoops

I think part of the problem is that people don't realize how calories add up. They don't realize that eating even a bit over maintenance can result in big weight gains. If I ate at maintenance and then decided to reward myself with one candy bar a day, I would put on ~26 pounds in one year! In 2-3 years I would be morbidly obese and saying "it must be my metabolism. I really don't eat that much!"