Is There Really a Genetic Reason for Weight Loss Struggles?
When you’re having a hard time losing the excess fat on your body, you may be looking for the reasons for weight loss struggles. After all, if you can find the sources of the grief, it may be easier to overcome them (or at least have something to blame!).
However, if you were thinking that there is a genetic reason for weight loss struggles, a recent study says that you might want to think again. As it turns out, carriers of the FTO gene – often nicknamed the obesity gene – are no less likely to drop the pounds on a diet than anyone else.
This goes against what many of us had long believed. It had seemed to make sense that genetics were a reason for weight loss struggles. After all, if there are genes that make it easier for you to pack on the pounds, then there should also be ones that make it harder to take them off. This, however, does not appear to be the case.
People who have the FTO gene are an average of 6.5 pounds heavier than people who don’t have the gene. They are also considerably more likely (70 percent!) to be obese. At the same time, if a person with the gene and a similar person without the gene were to follow the same healthy weight loss diet including eating and exercising, their results will likely be similar. At least, based on genetics, they will have the same chances of being successful.
A new report published in the British Medical Journal by Newcastle University researchers reviewed eight studies involving the weight loss of people with the FTO gene. It included the results of more than 9,000 people. What they showed was that their genetics did not play a role in their ability to lose weight.
Newcastle University Human Nutrition Professor John Mathers led the study. He stated that genes can no longer be blamed for causing weight loss struggles. He explained that if a person increases activity levels and improves the way they eat, they will lose weight no matter what their genetic makeup may be.
While the gene may make it much easier for those people to gain the weight in the first place, the right lifestyle will take the pounds back off again, regardless of genetics.
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