Genetic Test for Weight Loss

What do you mean by a genetic test for weight loss? I have heard of many other tests for diseases, but not this. Are you referring to a test for a predisposition to gaining / holding fat? Do you have any links we could look at?

No, and it really wouldnt make a difference. the way i see it. if your over weight, your overweight. who really cares WHY you are, the HOW you will lose it is more important. and the way you lose weight wont be any different based on the results of some test. the test will also add weight to an excuse, which nooone needs if they are trying to slim down! i also watched a programme where an overweight family had been using the excuse of genetics for years, and the test showed that they were actually BELOW the national average for genetic predesposition to weight gain. ouch. they found it quite a hard pill to swallow!

I dont want to sound mean, my family is a little chubby, but i have always been active so never massively struggled with my weight, but i have carried an extra 8 kilos around for a little too long (happy fat due to my boyfriend!)


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Thanks, interesting...I wonder if it's the eating habits that's more genetic rather than being naturally overweight.

I have never met a person who is overweight genetically but eat very healthy and live an active lifestyle. I think it's the "lifestyle" we choose to live.

Genetics come to play in the amount of fat cells we have which doesn't necessarily mean we will be fat.

I didn't even know that test existed, but I don't think it would be that helpful. Like someone else said, it makes it easy to give excuses. "oh, I'm genetically predisposed to gain weight, so there's nothing I can do, so I may as well not try.". Even if you did decide to change your lifestyle, it wouldn't make it any easier to know that you're going to have to work harder than your best friend, or coworker. On the other hand, someone mentioned a family that had been blaming genetics for years and found out that they were dead wrong, so in that case, maybe it would be a kick in the right direction.

I think people already make enough excuses though, and we don't need to go out and look for more. There's a woman I work with who is always talking about diet and exercise and why she's overweight. She always tells me how healthy she eats, but when I see the food she brings from home, it's really not very healthy and the portions are huge. It's easy to make excuses, and read books about "why you're fat", but it's much harder to actually get off your butt and change your lifestyle.

I know earlier this year I lost more by eating more (1700 -> 2000 cals). When I was eating 1700 cals, I believe I was low on fat daily, but I don't know if you could draw the correlation that eating more fat helped me lose more. Personally I like this at the end of the article:

Lastly, Dr. Katz adds, "These diets all work. It's a simple amount of calories consumed versus calories spent. The testing gives us a very interesting tool to potentially know what diet works best for you. But we already know the tools that can protect us from so many diseases - heart disease, cancer, diabetes. It's eating more fruits and vegetable and less processed foods, and regular exercise."