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

99% greed if you want to put it that way. Your family are overweight because that's the way they live and you've learned their lifestyle. Unless you can show me that you live on lettuce leaves and still gain weight then it's not genetic.

I think its not that simple.
Partly it comes down to genetics, ( slow metabolism, difficulty putting on lean muscle etc)
Partly lack of knowledge about nutrition, fitness , cooking....
Often it ivolves limited food options ( geographical constrains, not enough money to buy nutritious food, etc)
Brainwashing, ( advertising, mis information about nutrition i.e eat low fat/ sugar / carbs etc)
And then there are the physolocical issues i.e relationship with food, taste preference....
Not to mention gut bacteria, sugar , ghrehlin, insulin levels.
And physical constraints i.e injuries preventing exercise,
Then theres lack of will power and greed.



Thats my 2c. ¥

looking at my family i very well may have a bit of genetic predispositon, but carelessness made it happen

The biggest factor was that I was uneducated about nutrition and, because I was a very picky eater, this led me to make poor food choices. I was also not very active because I'm not good at sports.

I'm an emotional eater and comfort eat when depressed. Now on new meds and therapy. Hoping once they kick in to break the cycle. Definitely not genetics in my case.

My parents were responsible for me being overweight throughout my entire childhood (my mother was always very active and worked hard all day so she never put on any weight despite her awful eating habits. That didn't work out so well for me. We'd eat burgers and fries almost daily, absurd amounts of bread, soda as much as I wanted etc. I was left alone at home for most of the day too so I'd eat whenever and whatever I felt like.)

Then, in my teens, I lacked the will and discipline to stick to a diet and to be honest, I was deluding myself. For some reason, I always looked "just a bit chubby" when I looked in the mirror but then I'd see myself on photographs and think to myself that it must be an especially unfortunate angle or something, no way do I look like THAT. Plus I developed hypothyroidism so that was another handy excuse despite being on medication.

Now that I'm 24 and the fattest I've ever been it finally clicked and I'm done with looking and living like this. It wasn't my fault I got fat when I was a little kid but it sure as hell is my fault that I'm fat NOW! The "fat gene" in our family is simply not giving a damn about nutrition and spoiling the kids into obesity. Thankfully my cousin, while still being obese herself, managed to break out of the cycle and has three healthy, active and well-edcated kids.

I think the people who blame genetics are honestly copping out of responsibility. Yes, people are predisposed to things, but that does not make a given outcome inevitable. For instance, I bet many people dream of committing crimes as heinous as murder, but they don't go out and start offing people.

Sure, I will acknowledge that there are pressures to do things in society (much influenced by where you are and what you are surrounded with), but I do not think that means that any conclusion is foregone.

My own story is I drank Pepsi from a bottle since I was two, played video games from the same age, and was fed a steady diet of fast food. I never bothered thinking I was unhealthy--I simply enjoyed what I was doing. But now I am happier and healthier and educated enough to make competent food choices. I am not the slave of genetics; rather, I like to think I am my own master.

I'm not fat. Most of my family (immediate and extended) are. I think it's culturally driven. Our culture revolves around food and we are much less active than people used to be.

greed. And growing up in a house with no focus on health or nutrition where food was used to soothe and reward. It's a hard pattern to break.

Overeating. I don't think it has anything to do with genetics. When there are families that are all overweight, it's due to lifestyle, not genetics.

I don't think genetics has anything to do with it or if it does it is such a small factor in weight gain or such a small percentage of the population where it's a large amount weight, that it shouldn't be considered
A lot of people in my family are overweight, but it's definitely not related to our genes, it is what and how we eat and who we learn our behaviours from, so it may be inherited but not by DNA.

I too am an emotional eater (for any emotion unfortunately) and that coping strategy also comes from (as most coping strategies do) from early childhood. I had the added issue of learning a lot of maladaptive coping strategies and for a long time, eating for comfort was the least damaging path to take.

Someone Posted this recently by Kernel Mag - I am not convinced that they aren't just journalistic trolls, but it is an interesting read - You Eat too Much
http://www.kernelmag.com/features/report/6051/you-eat-too-much/

Then on the flip side there is this from one of the lesser 'controlled' media points in Australia
The overweight live longer
http://www.sbs.com.au/news/article/2012/11/09/obesity-paradox-studies-find-overweight-live-longer

Also Kernel Mag's opinion on the matter aside I think that the media portrayal of what we should look like does play a big part in it. There are a lot of studies that show that if you never start a diet (attempt to lose weight) --> you never need to (ie you will just stay the same weight). My first diet was when my mum dragged me as a 14 year old (at my current height 5ft2 weighing 47kg (103lbs)??!!! to weigh less - I wore a size B bra and had hips and that was so fat for a 14yr old?! - Not to mention that she was 5ft8 and weighed 54kg(118lbs)??!!! - My dad called her "fats". Both of us have been dieting ever since and pretty much never weighed again what we did when we started.

So I think far to many young girls, mothers and I know many men and boys attempt to lose weight when they don't need too, and because mostly the loudest diets out there then and now are total rubbish fads, get into a cycle we never get out of.

I won't even start on the whole Religion thing... I was brought up as a Muslim and Ramadaan (one month of fasting entire days(no water) - [as a child playing sport] ?! but having breakfast and dinner before sunrise and after sunset followed by days of feasting?!) I am no longer religious - but that certainly did not teach me anything healthy about my relationship with food.

edited - long post. = lots of errors

It's both.

Eating (or breathing for that matter) are behaviors. We choose to eat. We choose to breath (the conscious act).

As an MFP user, I have learned to control what and how much I eat so as not to gain my weight back. As a FreeDiver (SCUBA diving without a tank), I have learned to hold my breath much longer than the average person.

However, I can not keep myself from eating when the hunger pains are great, and I can not keep from taking a breath when my blood oxygen drops too low.

We are pre-programmed (call it instinct, call it genetics, call it bacon, what ever, it is real) to want to eat and breath as evidenced by hunger pains and that tightness in your chest when you hold your breath.

So...as a behavior, we should be able to control eating and breathing. But since it is also instinctual (i.e. genetics), it may not be as controllable as those "personal responsibility types who've never studied chemistry and genetics would have you believe. Google the sport gene. It is a genetic condition where the person with the gene has 2 to 3 times more red blood cells in the blood, and can thus endure exertion for greater periods of time (e.g. marathon endurance) than those without the sport gene version of the DNA)

But individuals who can NOT keep from eating until they pass out for lack of calories are unable to override the pre-programming. Likewise, very few people (ok maybe a few problem kids) can hold their breaths until they turn blue in the face and pass out for lack of oxygen. These are examples of where humans are not able to control their pre-programmed behavior.

IMHO.....these behaviors are both instinctual (genetic) and learned. Some folks find it harder to resist the hunger pains. Some folks have to take a breath way sooner than I do. Learned? Inherited (what is instinct, if it is not inherited via genetics?)?

So now my simple answer to the simple question: It's both greed (I interpret this to mean conscious behavior) and genetics.

I don't like the title of your post. The words "greed" and "fat" are quite negative.

For me it's neither. It could be both. I come from a family of big people who overeat and don't exercise. Sometimes that cake was so good, I want another piece. Call that greed if you want, but I don't think of it that way while I'm looking at the cake

Mostly, my overweight-ness is me not paying attention to what I'm eating (or keeping track) and procrastinating on exercise. You could call it ignorance and procrastination, with a little bit of "greed" and genetics thrown in.

We are responsible for our actions, including what we eat and do (shrug). All people are different and the level of work it takes to become or stay fit varies with the colors of the rainbow.

Although there are genes that determine, for example, our predisposition to preferring high fat food, I don't believe they can really be blamed for people being overweight. Families of overweight individuals pass down their predisposition to poor choices as an environmental factor, rather than a genetic one, in the vast majority of cases. Even if you inherit these genes, you can override them by making sensible choices.

Personally, I put on weight due to a variety of health issues, medications, and poor choices. Eating too much for my reduced activity level (due to the health issues) being the major issue!