Weight Loss Goddess

Genetic Factors Continued
A number of genes are responsible for regulating body weight.

More than a decade ago, researchers at Rockefeller University discovered that mutations in a gene—called the obesity (ob) gene— prevented a strain of mice from producing leptin.

Leptin is a hormone normally manufactured by fat cells, and released into the blood to inform the brain about the body’s level of fat stores.

When this communication system works properly, the brain responds to leptin by reducing appetite and speeding up metabolism to maintain a normal level of body fat.

Because the mice with the mutated ob gene did not produce leptin, their brains continually sent messages to the rest of the body to eat and store fat, and the mice became obese.

However, when leptin was injected into the obese mice, they quickly lost weight through a combination of decreased food intake and increased activity.

Since this discovery, however, researchers have found that administering leptin to obese people rarely reduces weight, because their blood leptin levels are already high and/or their bodies are resistant to the effects of leptin.

Still, unraveling the link between leptin (and other substances released by fat cells) and weight control may lead to the development of more effective drugs for weight loss.

Controllable factors—for example, a high-calorie diet, emotional responses to food (such as eating when anxious or bored), too large portion sizes, automatic eating, and a lack of exercise—play a crucial role in the development of obesity.

Yet research confirms that more is involved in losing weight and keeping it off than just a lack of willpower or a sedentary lifestyle.

Factors That Cannot Be Changed
Although these factors are beyond your control, their impact on your weight can be modified by changing your diet and increasing your level of physical activity.

Heredity
Studies show that 80% of children born to two obese parents will themselves become obese, compared with 14% of children born to normal-weight parents.

Research on identical twins shows similarly high rates of inheritance factor when it comes to weight.

However, studies comparing the weights of adoptees with the weights of their biological and adopted parents indicate that genetic factors are responsible for only about a third of the difference in weight.

Heredity seems to influence the number of fat cells in the body, how much and where fat is stored, and how much energy the body uses at rest (metabolism).

In addition, childhood obesity tends to translate into adult obesity.

About 80% of obese children become obese adults (although only about 20% of all obese adults were obese as children).

Good nutritional habits aren’t just important for preventing diseases, they can also help you watch your weight.

Rates of overweight and obesity are higher than ever in the United States, alarmingly so.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), more than six in 10 American adults are overweight or obese—and most adults are about 25 pounds heavier than people were in the 1960s.

To make matters worse, more than half of all overweight people actually think they’re at a healthy weight, according to a recent Associated Press poll.

In theory, weight management to stay at a healthy weight is a simple matter of balancing energy intake (the calories supplied by food) with energy output (the calories expended by physical activity, the digestion of food, and the functioning of your body).

To lose weight, you need to expend more energy than you take in. In practice, however, the task is not that simple. While the basic principle of energy balance remains true, several factors—genetic, metabolic, and environmental—can affect how much you eat and how your body uses and stores energy.

Even if the genetic and metabolic components involved in weight management are mostly beyond your control, the good news is that environmental factors ARE controllable and can have a significant impact. By manipulating these controllable factors to your advantage, you can successfully lose weight and keep it off.

In this series, we will be talking about the factors that contribute to your weight loss and gain, and what you can do about them, for effective weight management, or even weight loss.