To think that obesity mostly has to do with your genes

[penandpaperlife]

I've been living with my best friend for a year now due to some personal issues with my STBXH, and this has been something I've been wondering about. My best friend eats the exact same thing as me, with the same exact portion size. She also snacks on nuts and/or biscuits throughout the day (we're a freelance team so we spend basically all day together) while I don't.

Why then, is she slim and I'm not?

The only difference in our lifestyle is that she goes for a 15min run every morning. I've read studies and charts though and that seems to only burn about 150kcals. Surely that wouldn't even offset her snacks? I come from a 'fat family', she doesn't. We're both almost 30, if that matters. That leads me to believe that genetics do play a huge part here, contrary to what's often being parroted in the press. Is that possible? Does anyone have any experience with this?

I was going to mention WW2 and late 1940s rationing. Was anyone overweight then? I don't think so, everyone was very thin unless they were able to get extra food somehow. I still think generally it's a simple case of food in and exercise out.

My granny was always fat during the rationing years. She had no more food than the rest of her family.

Have cut down on the cream for my morning coffee and am about to go on my first walk! I don't think I can run at all but will try her uphill route (she's sent me her strava map!) now. Will report back if I manage to magically not go out of breath halfway up the hill.

suggestionsplease1 I saw a tv programme about that recently. Wish I could remember so I could find a link. They gave fat people a dose of a thin person's gut flora and the fat people did indeed start to lose weight.

@Hoppinggreen

You're not listening. At 1000 calories a day. Your body will go into starvation mode. Which lays down fat. If you eat 1000 calories everyday. Everyday you're body will lay down more fat

You need to eat roughly 1400-1600 per day. Cardio exercise. Get that heart rate up to 170+. 5 days a week. 30 mins holt is a good one.

Starving yourself daily isn't ever going to work.

Starvation mode is a load of bollocks and no, it won't happen, because the body does not create energy out of thin air.

It would only do it for a short time though. As if you aren't eating enough. You wouldn't have the fat to lay. Which is why you don't see it in concentration camps. But that's true starvation. If you're giving your body a little. It will use it as emergency stores.

Some people need less food. Even if you were as active as your friend you may still need to eat less than her to not be fat.
My sister has always eaten loads and is less active than me. She is actually always been lazy. She has never been fat. I am. I just need to eat a lot less than her. Maybe not "fair" but it is the way it is.

Ok. Metabolic damage then.

If your body is capable of creating energy out of thin air (ie going into 'starvation mode' as (mis)understood by fatlogic types, please promptly present yourself to the nearest medical research facility, because you'd be the first ever person to defy the law of thermodynamics, making you a literal miracle.

Why call it damage?

Also OP there is a huge correlation in the west between being fat and poor. There is lots of research about why this is the case.

People were fat during the war and rationing years as fruit and veg was not part of rationing.
But no one filed up on blueberries and courgettes. It was starchy potatoes and turnips that dominated their diets. Both high in carb and calories.

It certainly doesn't do most people much harm to do some intermittent fasting and often a lot of good. Anyway whether 1400, 1200, or 1000 calories people will lose weight if they eat fewer than they expend. You need a 3500 calorie deficit to lose 1 pound so might lose say a pound a week on 1200 calories a day for example which is just over 3.5 stone a year.

Oh come on, no-one gets fat on potatoes and turnips unless they are fried and dipped in sugar and they still probably don't when undertaking wartime and post war levels of activity like manual work, walking to work, shopping daily on foot, manual housework etc.

Contrary to popular Mumsnet wisdom, it's not necessary to eat a low carb diet and live on things like blueberries and courgettes to be slim.

Uhh... it is very easy to gain weight on boiled potatoes. They are rather calorie dense.

Hoggleludo I said I was going to aim for 1500
I already walk for around 2 hours a day and living in Yorkshire there are always hills involved!
Appreciate the advice, I’m not in denial here I’m after genuine help as so far I have only ever lost weight in pregnancy and at almost 50 and with the dc here all day so no “fun time” with DH that’s really NOT an option!

Even if you eat an entire kilo of boiled potatoes, thats only 870 calories... plus the fact that the average person was more active than today, they weren't getting fat from potatoes.

There is about 80 calories in each 100 gms of potatoe which is about 3 times the amount that is in broccoli.
Now a diet with potatoes in every meal for years will soon pile on the pounds if you don’t exercise.

I feel like the urge to eat all the time isn’t something I can control, so hate all the fucking moralising about weight

I mean, you can control urges.

I was a heavy smoker and that was always my excuse. I can't help it, I'm addicted, it'll be impossible to ignore the urge. But it's not impossible. Hard, really fucking hard and extremely uncomfortable, but definitely doable. Urges fuck off if you hold out and resist them long enough.

I'm definitely not bashing, and I do sympathise because it's a hard mindset to break.

For me I could eat 800 calories of sugar and gain weight every day. I could eat 2500 calories of veg and protein and lose weight.

Whether obesity has mostly to do with your genes or not is irrelevant. Because you can't change your genes. So even if lifestyle is only contributing 5% and genes 95%, you need concentrate on 5% you can do something about.

I honestly don’t know. Up until the last few years I could eat whatever I wanted and not put weight on. After absolutely piling it on I signed up with a PT who put me on a low-carb diet. It worked and I lost about 3 stone. I still have to go low-carb if I don’t want to pack weight on. Calories in vs. Calories out just doesn’t work for me in such simple terms. It’s where the calories come from that matter for me. I stopped going to the PT when he said I had to cut dairy as well, as I just can’t do it and it was way too restrictive. I mostly follow low-carb now but have the occasional treat a couple of times a week.

However, my friend can eat whatever she wants (when we worked together we’d often go to the same places for lunch and get very similar stuff) and doesn’t have to worry about weight gain. My friend at work is the same; they go (or did as they can’t right now) go to the gym a lot but I’ve always read that diet makes the most difference and “you can’t outrun your fork”. They eat loads of the “wrong” things (crisp, biscuits, milkshakes, cakes) and stay thin. There has to be more to it than just “in vs. out”.

@penandpaperlife protein is calories (4 calories per 1g) so of course it can make you gain weight. I hate when people say that ‘I thought only carbs make you gains weight’

A calorie is a calorie.
If you are 2000 calories of cake a day to 2000 calories of apples then in terms of weight you would weigh exactly the same.

It’s just protein tends to make people feel fuller than carbs meaning if you ate 1000 calories of eggs you like would feel absolutely stuffed and wouldn’t eat for ages after compared to eating 1000 calories of popcorn which would probably leave you hungry in a few hours.

@PennyNotSoWise I feel hungry most of the time. When I have a bad cold I only feel hungry just before meal times and it is totally different. I always lose weight when I have a bad cold and it is so easy. Basically I have to resist the desire to eat most of the day, while feeling hungry. I do that sometimes, but when life is tough I find it too difficult to resist.
Imagine that you had to smoke 3 cigarettes a day but no more. I would find it far easier just to never eat than to eat every day but not too much.

I am sorry but mash potataoes is my downfall, i love them and eat too much, when i do i put on huge amount of weight . So now i am very careful. For me a low carb diet works along with a bit of exercise most of the week