An Active Lifestyle CAN Overcome Your “Fat Genes”
After decades of blaming excess weight on unhealthy eating habits and sedentary lifestyles doctors and scientists have come to accept that a certain percentage of people inherit a genetic disposition toward obesity. Their genetic makeup literally passes on an “affinity” for carrying excess weight!
But even for those people, hope is not lost. New research published in Scientific Reports shows that living an active lifestyle can actually combat those “fat genes” hiding in your DNA.
The Truth About “Fat Genes”
FTO, the human fat mass and obesity-associated gene, is a specific genetic marker that can be passed from one generation to the next. While scientists are reluctant to say passing this gene alone correlates directly to “inherited obesity,” they do accept that lab animals with increased expression of FTO do tend to be obese more often than animals with lower FTO expression.
But that doesn’t mean that FTO is solely responsible for obesity. In fact, some mice with high FTO expression still maintain healthier body types. This has led scientists to conclude that diet and exercise still play a much more important role in determining a person’s physical appearance than genetics.
The Dangers of Excessive Energy
Scientists examining this genetic predisposition for obesity found that lab mice were more prone to gaining weight when they consumed what researchers called “excessive energy”— more calories than their body needed on a daily basis. (That unused energy is converted into fat for storage.)
Unfortunately, people with higher-than-normal expressions of FTO are likely to gain more weight faster than people without this particular genetic makeup even when they consume the same amount of “excessive energy.”
The major contributing factor for determining how much energy is “excessive” isn’t dietary—it’s activity level. Individuals who lead a sedentary lifestyle burn much less energy than those who enjoy even moderate exercise on a regular basis.
But all is not lost for people battling genetic markers for obesity.
The Good News About Genetic Obesity
Researchers believe that a healthy lifestyle can overcome a genetic predisposition for obesity. When David Meyre, from the McMaster’s Michael G. DeGroote School of Medicine in Ontario, Canada, launched a multi-ethnic study of people of European, East African, and Asian descent, researchers discovered that exercise alone (without dietary changes) can have a dramatic effect on body mass.
The study followed over 17,000 people for three years. In the end researchers concluded that exercise can positively reduce the effect of FTO genes by up to 75%. That means that even people who inherited genetic obesity can maintain a healthy weight just by revamping their sedentary lifestyles.
Break Free from Your Sedentary Lifestyle
“Regular exercise” doesn’t necessarily mean hitting the gym every day. There are a number of small things people of any ability level can do to create their own healthy lifestyle. Take daily strolls after dinner, use the stairs instead of elevators, limit screen time when possible, park farther away from the entrance at the mall, pick up a new outdoor hobby: learn to kayak, ski, or hike—it all adds up!
And when you use The Hollywood Cookie Diet® meal replacement cookies to decrease the amount of excessive energy you consume in a day, that positive effect is multiplied.
Living a healthy lifestyle can help you overcome your “fat genes.” Learn how you can jumpstart your healthy lifestyle with The Hollywood 48-Hour Miracle Diet® today.