Can't Fit into Your Jeans? Should You Blame Your Genes?

Like so many other people I have fought being overweight most of my life, though this past year I lost over 45 pounds. Apparently, according to the latest scientific research results or perhaps more to how they were reported in the news media, I managed to accomplish this even though I probably have a set of "bad" genes. They are mostly in my brain, rather than fat tissue or digestive processes. They create a natural tendency for me to overeat rather than a problem with my metabolism. In this holiday season with so much food temptation all around it is especially important to understand what science is telling us.

By spending time reading a number of articles I discovered that widespread sensational headlines have largely misrepresented the actual scientific results. Here is a sampling of those headlines in newspapers and magazines: "Obesity May Be Mostly In Your Head," "Compulsion to Overeat Is Mainly in the Genes, Study Shows," "Obesity; it's all in your head?" "Are You Genetically Hardwired for Extra Pounds?"

As usual, the translation of very complex scientific research into communication to the general public is very susceptible to sensationalism and inaccuracy. True enough. A great many researchers have discovered a relationship between overweight and obesity and a number of genetic variations. But in the world of science finding a relationship is not exactly the same as finding exactly what is the cause of a particular observation, such as excessive body weight.

Though the research results are absolutely solid and reliable that there are a number of genes that are found more in people with excessive weight, this does not at all mean that these inherited genetic variations are by themselves solely or even mostly responsible for individuals being overweight or obese.

What was not as widely reported could be found in articles in science-oriented publications, rather than mass media publications. What deserves considerable attention and understanding is that the 1.2 percent of individuals with some of the bad genes were at most only 4.4 pounds heavier on average than individuals with "average" genes. And people with the greatest number of mutations in these obesity genes carried an average of 10 pounds more of fat than did those with the fewest bad genes.

In other words, these research findings signify pretty minimal predictive information from knowledge about what genes individuals have. Framed another way, these new results say that individually, the genetic variants found in the research increased the odds of being overweight by between just 3 percent and 14 percent, and of being obese by between 3 percent and 25 percent. Certainly, looked at these ways the widely publicized research results though of great importance, are far from being the whole story.

The larger point is that overweight and obesity are determined by multiple factors, both genetic and environmental, where the latter means all sorts of behaviors, namely what and how much you eat and the extent of your physical activity. These matter more than what your genes are contributing. The eight genetic variants identified in the research were estimated to account for about 0.8% of the variation in Body Mass Index, the numerical system now widely used to measure overweight and obesity, which is clearly a small amount. There may be more as yet undiscovered genetic variants having an effect, but right now we need to focus on environmental factors such as diet and physical activity.

The bottom line is that all of us that fight overweight and obesity need to maintain a healthy diet and daily exercise, and not sit back, literally, and blame our bad genes (and our parents who gave them to us), not if we really want to fit into those old, smaller size jeans in our closet. Think of it this way: Your genetic makeup does not entirely determine your "fat" destiny. You still have power and control to stop overindulgence, if you exercise them - literally! You can successfully fight your genetic impulses with determination and willpower. So don't let bad genes be your excuse for staying unhealthy. Maybe being fat is in our heads, but so is being thin.