Genes Stacked Against Weight Loss?

If weight loss was one of your New Year's resolutions, don't expect your genes to get you to your goal.

In a new report, scientists estimate that more than 6,000 genes affect weight in mice.

Though those findings came from studies of mice, they may have meaning for people, notes researcher Michael Tordoff, PhD, of Philadelphia's Monell Chemical Senses Center.

"Reports describing the discovery of a new 'obesity gene' have become common in the scientific literature and also the popular press," Tordoff says in a news release. "Our results suggest that each newly discovered gene is just one of the many thousands that influence body weight, so a quick fix to the obesity problem is unlikely."

Searching for Weight Genes

Tordoff's team reviewed previous studies of some 1,900 mouse genes. Most of those genes didn't affect the mice's weight, but 31% could boost weight and 3% could cut weight.

In other words, weight-gain genes outnumbered weight-loss genes by 10 to one, "which might help explain why it is easier to gain weight than lose it," Tordoff says.

The researchers' estimates appear online in BMC Genetics. But there's more to weight than genetics -- for mice and for people.

Take diet , for instance. Eat more calories than you burn and your genes can't bail you out of weight gain forever.

And then there's physical activity . Sitting on the sidelines isn't going to get extra weight off, whether you're a person skipping your workout or a mouse with no running wheel in your cage.

The bottom line? You can't change your genes, but you can work on eating healthfully and being more active. Genes aren't the whole story, even if there are thousands of them involved.

By Miranda Hitti
Reviewed by Louise Chang
©2005-2006 WebMD, Inc. All rights reserved

[commonsense4once]

To: drivelphobe
Well, good luck to you also with your drinking problem. That''s the only thing I can think of that would damage as many brain cells as you obviously have. You are pitiful. I really feel sorry for you. Go ahead....waste your pitiful life making fun of others. Why don''t you try getting a job that would help people instead of sitting around all day making stupid comments on every site you can find.

[commonsense4once]

To: drivelphobe

That''s great that you''ve kept your body weight down. Too bad you can''t lose some of the fat that''s between your ears. You''re a mean spirited, hateful person.

[lloydbest1]

It''s all about energy balance. You take in more calories than you burn that excess energy WILL get stored. The balance is really fragile, too. If you are at an ideal weight at, say, age 20 and you consume just 10 calories more than you burn; over a period of 30 years you have gained 30 pounds and, depending on your height, crossed over the boundary from "overweight" to "obese". To give an idea of what 10 calories represents....One Ritz cracker, two medium sized olives, about 3 MM''s or Reese''s Pieces, one ounce of skim milk...it ain''t much!
Brianbwb mentions steroids and growth hormones. This is one of the reasons second generation Cambodian, Vietnamese and other southeast Asian Americans average anywhere from 4 to 7 inches taller than their immigrant parents. You don''t get that kind of single generation height increase without a LOT of chemical help. And neither steroids nor growth hormones do anything to stimulate the body to lose weight; if anything both make it even more difficult.

[vittoria1]

Funny thing: I do not come from a family of thin people, and I was following in my relatives'' (large) footsteps in my teens. However, I went on a long-term diet that provided sufficient calories, variety, and nutrients to enable me to stick to it. I lost all the extra weight and then some, and I''ve kept it off for 30 years. How? Simply by eating what I want but limiting portion sizes and by getting exercise in the form of nothing more strenuous than daily walking. My relatives are still overweight. Genes? Well, maybe, but my experience has taught me that sheer overconsumption of food is the culprit.

[lawyertom1]

skinnyminny2. Amen.

[skinnyminny2]

Of course it''s easier to gain weight than it is to lose it--only recently have convenient, high-fat sugary foods been so available to humans. Hunter-gatherers were not fat because they didn''t sit around eating fried chicken, cookies and pie. We simply have too many fat and calorie-dense foods everywhere and sedentary people eating them.

[brianbwb-2009]

"Thousands of Genes May Affect Weight, Say Researchers Studying Mice"

Not to mention the steroids and growth hormones fed to American beef cattle and chicken. It is used by the growers to make the animals grow faster and larger, and just because the animal dies doesn''t mean the stuff is removed from the meat.

Your McD burgers, your KFC, and other fast food chains are the vector that introduces high levels of steroids and other hormones into the food chain.

[bm6005]

Would this be the gene that stops most Americans from pushing their fat azz away from the table?

[baileyccc]

Process foods is the problem but it is never mention. Raw food is the answer.