regarding high risk obesity gene

[ICBINEG]

link

I think I have it.... this sounds so very like me....particularly the protein working better than anything else to reduce appetite.

So anyone else think they are in the 1:6 with a high risk obesity gene?

AIBU to think it really does help to know WHY it is harder for some people to lose / keep weight off than others?

techno if you are reading then why do you keep telling me to eat more whole foods? I already said that I do!

there's no wonder drug currently out there to eliminate hunger pangs

That is exactly what this research is promising for people with the gene.

hmm I find the longer I put off eating while hungry the worse the over eat is likely to be.

But surely you must know that you can't be that hungry if you have eaten a meal?

So I ate breakfast at 7am today. Had lunch around 1pm. If I was hungry at 9am then I obviously didn't eat a proper breakfast or if I was hungry at 11.30am I wouldn't snack as I would know I would be having a proper meal in an hour or so.
I will eat dinner probably at 8-9pm tonight. I wouldn't get in from work at 7 and start snacking as then I wouldn't have an appetite for dinner not long after.

How people have time to eat all day I have no idea. And for me a snack would take a while to prepare unless an apple or something as we don't tend to keep ' snack food' in te house.

I often think hunger comes with boredom. People would snack often do you have to keep taking time out of you day to eat?
My day goes something like wake, work, eat, work, kids up, kids nusery, work, pick kids up, lunch, work, playing out with kids, swim/ run with kids, feed everyone, shower, read, sleep. Finding time to just snack snack, make gallons of tea would be exhausting as would mean moving work time into the night.

My day is a bit like, have some fruit for breakfast, hungry by 9am. Still hungry at 10 am, still hungry at 11 and starting to not be able to work due to constant intrusive thoughts involving sugar. 11am have cup of tea and most of lunch (low cal bread with humus, banana, satsuma, carrot). Noon feel hungry, 1pm have any left over lunch, 2pm feel hungry, 3pm feel hungry, 4pm give up trying to work due to hunger. 5pm stupidly hungry. 5:30 have dinner with family (eg. prawn stirfry - no oil). 7pm hungry, 8pm hungry, 9 pm really hungry, 10pm have tea and toast or else I am too hungry to sleep.

Net calorie intake around 1400.

On days I do sport, I always have to eat more toast/fruit in the evening in order to be able to sleep.

But surely you must know that you can't be that hungry if you have eaten a meal?

No, the article (which few on here seem to have read) explains that the FTO gene affects production of hormone ghrelin. Ghrelin tells your brain when you need more food. In people with this gene variant, ghrelin doesn't fall as far after eating, and rises again more quickly. So they actually ARE more hungry.

This would have been a survival advantage in times of scarce food. The people with high ghrelin would have had the appetite to lay down large body fat stores, which could see them through the winter.

I'd be hungry too if I only had fruit for breakfast!

ICBINEG, it must be miserable being that hungry so often. Sympathies!

... that said, the diet you described isn't really enough food for a normally active adult.

Eat more.
Especially more protein. Add protein and complex carbs (wholemeal bread; muesli; porridge) to your breakfast. Have a banana mid-morning and a bigger lunch. All this low-cal, low-carb won't do you any good, you know.

It does seems like people are fatter than ever if you look at the stats, but the goalposts seem to have changed regarding what is obese and what is normal.

I remember in my school days (early 80's) there were at least 5 'fat kids' in each class, and to be called 'fatty' you really REALLY looked it. I look at my sons' school there's only one truly 'fat looking' kid in the whole school, the rest just look chunky.

I look at my grandmother and distant relatives, there was only one 'thin' one amongst them, they were mostly chunky/stocky (none in the family were 'fat looking').

By today's standards I think more people are classed as obese.

I'm not saying there isn't a problem, there really is and it has a number of factors. BUT I do think there are also a number of healthy people who, with a standard healthy diet, are heavier and look bigger than others. It's not JUST about the food, or the exercise.

I think we've forgotten that people do come in different shapes and sizes, couple that with the massive array of food choices, even healthy food choices and various advice, one size does not fit all.

It's taken me 35 years to nail down exactly what makes me gain weight, what makes me cruise, and what makes me lose weight... it's really complex, and my lists will vary hugely from others.

I can't help but think that if a simple blood test could show how your body is storing and using food, what it requires, specific to each person, then it would save many people and lot of time, money and desperation.

If I could get a quick and easy diagnosis of whether or not I have a 'fat gene' and what type it was, I cannot see that as a bad thing at all.

Thanks for the support Garlic.

forever It is indeed the case that I am hungry within an hour of even a big meal, and equally that I do not actually need more calories.

But how does knowing I don't need to eat help me with the fact I feel hungry?

aldi yes I could have done with some time in a calorimeter so that I knew more accurately how many calories I actually need to eat to break even (seeing as my brain has the fucked up the calculation so spectacularly). That would have saved me heart ache while trying to lose weight.

I would be great if a blood test could give you reliable dieting help. Hell it would be nice if dieting help related to more than 'eat less and move more' which, while true, is only the first letter of the first word of the first page of the book of actually losing serious weight.

ICBINEG

I would play around with your diet perhaps adding more protein to see if you can find something that helps a bit.

For example, I have fruit for breakfast but I add some nuts and that makes a big difference for me, fruit on its own wouldn't do the trick. The protein and fat in the nuts seems to even things out a bit.

I think we've forgotten that people do come in different shapes and sizes

I agree, aldi, and with your wise words about different bodies responding individually to different input.

Unfortunately I'm getting so fed up with wilful ignorance, on this thread and a few others, that I've actually wasted hours and hours going through old photos to see if I was wrong and there were no fat people! It's complete bollocks, of course, there is a very fat child in every school class photo since 1945. And fat teachers, fat mums and fat dads.

ICBIN, would you try eating a properly healthy diet for a few weeks? Between 2,000 and 2,500 if you count calories. A classic plate of one-third meat/fish, one-third veg, one-third carbs, three times a day. Have a pudding once a day, snack on fruit & veg and allow crisps or chocolate once a day. When you're hungry, try to eat protein - cheese or a tuna wrap, say. Avoid products labelled low-fat or diet. See how you go :)

Scotch eggs :) When I 'crash', I eat Scotch eggs! I'm the one standing by the chiller cabinet, ripping open a two-pack to eat one immediately.

Iceberg- of course your hungry, that doesn't sound like enough food in the day. That's basically fasting food of little protein and nutrition

Me:
Breakfast - Bircher musli ( homemade with nuts/ seeds), blueberries and banana chopped up with Greek yogurt
Lunch- sushi ( salmon, Tuna and seabass sashimi and nigiri), edame beans
Dinner- not had but planning on baked potato with sour cream and chives. Greek salad ( leaves/ cucumber/ tomatoes/ feta/ olives).

Low fat just means high sugar or additives in general

I was looking for a recent thread by someone who's recovering from an ED and asked what 'normal' is. There were loads of dysfunctional replies - I'd say yours is too little, forever, although v healthful. But one of the respondents posted her ED recovery diet from the hospital she was in. It was great, and she went on to discuss how your weight settles at a healthy level.

Does anyone know the thread I mean?

Garlic- is there a reason why that sounds not enough? I haven't mentioned sizes of anything.

For example breakfast this am was a regular size banana, with a large handful of berries, 1/3 bowl museli ( probably 5 of walnuts/ pecans/ almonds), and the rest of bowl yogurt. That seems like a large portion in one sitting to me

The sushi- x3 of each fish as sashimi, and x2 of each as nigiri. That's 15 pieces of sushi. V filling. Seeing as Murray apparently eats 30 ish after a mega game of tennis that also seems an average portion

Yes, but if we are talking about 'obese' then we are talking very overweight. I agree that some people find it harder than others to stay slim, different metabolism etc. And of course if you are short it is harder to stay slim as you need less calories and there is less surface area for the fat to go (as well I know!). I know a couple of girls who are very sporty and tall, but they are not what you would call slim, more 'big boned' I guess.

But 'obese' is something else entirely. While I think you can blame genes for having a slightly larger than normal arse, or horrible cankley legs (again I am projecting here!) I am not sure you can blame them for getting really overweight, that is your responsibility. as people keep saying, if obesity was genetic then you would have had far, far more obese people 50 years ago, but back then, they were a rarity.

I think the problem is far more to do with the very sedentary lifestyle that people now lead, coupled with the fact that I think the majority of people in this country have some level of sugar addiction. Anyone who thinks they do lots of excercise and eat a really healthy diet but is 'obese' 'obese'through no fault of their own (and I am talking an unhealthy weight rather than athlete 'obese') is deluding themselves.

In the 50s (or whatever golden age of slimness we are talking about) of course there were fat people but not very many, and the 'norm' was to be slim. Now the 'norm' is to be chunky (ie. Overweight/obese). There may have been many reasons why someone became fat back then - eating disorders, wealth, medical conditions, greedy or maybe for a tiny percentage it was in their genes. But it would have been a tiny percentage surely, and couldn't account for the percentage of obese people there are now.

ICBINEG

I realise you think I'm not reading/listening but I genuinely am. If it's not coming across then I apologise.

What I'm suggesting is to eat what works for you. Not what should work for the rest of us. I'm not criticising but fruit for breakfast seems lacking to me and short on protein but like I say, you need to work out what 'whole' foods suit you best.

I eat a very small bowl of porridge with seeds, sultanas and honey as this works for me. If I'm working out hard I put in a teaspoon of protein powder. Fruit on its own sounds insufficient.

I would also say that it's well worth getting the advice of a decent nutritionist. For me, eating 3 meals a day is no good. I eat at least 5 times a day i.e. 3 meals and 2 snacks. I ensure my protein intake is high(ish) and my carb/sugar intake low. I don't bother about fats too much and keep refined sugar down to a minimum. If I eat carbs then I make sure it's brown rice/pasta/bread.

As ever I feel nutrition is key. The embarrassing bodies Dr. Dawn did a great show recently with obese people and customised a food plan that saw many people (with the fat gene) losing weight and without having to lose an arm/leg in the process.

Forevergreek - good point, and I didn't mean to criticise. I am concerned at times about inadequate diets being promoted as normal, especially to women. Since OP seems to be following a generally destructive path to try and control her weight (it will control itself if she eats an old-fashioned sporting diet,) my comment was about the lack of bulk and variety in your day's food. I'm sure it's good for you, especially if you're fairly slight of build, and 15 sushi is a good amount. :)

It's a weird one, this 'obesity'. I'm a 5'8" peasant, and I am obese. If you saw me, you'd say I was fat but most would not call me obese from my appearance. I've gained 5 stone () through lifestyle changes caused by illness, poverty and medications. My weight has remained stable at this level, and I see a variety of doctors who are unconcerned about my BMI. But I am, the charts say, obese.

Also, before I got sick, I used to train with Matt Roberts sometimes. He said he was obese! Going by BMI alone, he was, as he carried such dense muscle. And I was overweight, at size ten, for the same reason.

It comes back to different folks, different bodies, different genes.

Yes but the vast vast majority of the obese population are not obese in the same that Matt Roberts is 'obese'! The bmi system obviously has flaws as it does not take into account people with very dense muscle etc. But generally it is a good indicator of whether someone is likely to have health problems in the future or even die sooner than expected, solely because of their weight. And for more people than ever before that is true.

Yes, it would be nice if all obesity was like his

I think I just really wanted to make the point that a lot of the 'knowledge' being constantly shoved at us is crude at best, and often not even based on verifiable facts. It is ridiculous that a healthy, adult woman is putting herself through the misery of daily hunger thanks to this un-wisdom. It's even likely that ICBINEG's diet is making her fatter - the brain's very sensible response to feelings of starvation is to cut back on normal maintenance, burn less fuel and lay down stores for the famine ahead. If you have a genetic or medical condition that predisposes your body to do this anyway, you'll just be making it fatter and less efficient while getting more & more hungry.

But ... try and point this sort of thing out on a diet thread, despite the fact that it's based on huge rafts of medical research rather than some quack making mega-bucks, and you get shouted down.

Sorry for talking about you as if you weren't here, OP