Why are some people prone to being chubby?

[Scarlet2906]

I don't believe any person is naturally obese without consuming a massive amount of calories either through food, drink or both but I do believe that I am naturally prone to being mildly overweight. I am currently 2st overweight.

I have been thin in the past but only when I was barely eating anything all day. I have to go on a huge calorie deficit to lose even a small amount of weight.

I honestly don't eat any more than people that are an healthy weight and regularly go to bed hungry. I also have a job that must burn a lot of calories as I am on my feet all day and on top of that I walk a lot every week. I regularly walk 2 miles home from work.

Are you the same? Do you think that I might have a problem with my thyroid?

Genetics must play a part in my opinion. All the women in my family carry weight in the middle, but have thin arms and legs.
My friend puts on weight straight to her hips and thighs.
Calories don't influence that!

Genetics, surely.

I think a fair amount of the difference between individuals comes down to a) gut health b) fidgeting.

You wouldn't want to be sitting next to me in the theatre, or managing me in a call centre, or trying to get me out of the door for a fixed time without me suddenly deciding I need to go upstairs to polish the bathroom mirror, but I definitely find it easier than most short menopausal women to stay (just) in the healthy BMI range without "exercise" or a restrictive diet.

What you are saying in your op is that naturally chubby isn’t your fault but properly fat is other peoples fault?

It is way more complicated than that and ‘fault’ IF it features in the reasons is probably one of the less significant causes.

It takes knowledge, genetics/health and resources(physical, practical, financial and personal), circumstances and sustained application to become and then stay slim if you are not. Maybe more than that …

I think the rise of drugs like Mounjaro also shows it's not just a lack of willpower.

But Mounjaro and the like aren’t melting fat, they are suppressing appetites. It’s willpower in a jab.

@DownThePubWithStevieNicks but it's not just that, it's the food noise, which a lot of people don't get

No I don't believe some people are prone to being chubby. I believe a lot of people underestimate what they eat/drink and that UPFs are a big part of the problem.

I used to be forever dieting and struggling to keep to only 7-14 lb overweight - always just a bit chunky. 14k steps per day plus exercise.
Retired around 60 and been skinny ever since without worrying. I put this down to even more walking, and not being forced into a meal routine to fit a sedentary job with boredom snacking. I’m sure my basic metabolism hasn’t changed.

My contribution to “why are more people overweight nowadays?” is increased car use and delivery services. People have lost the habit of going out in all weathers.

(Not targeted specifically at you.)

But this is too simplistic, the question is WHY some eat more. On some of the documentaries quoted above the 'thin' group aren't eating less because they want to, they genuinely don't want to, they aren't hungry. I on the other hand, think about food every hour of the day. My stomach is rumbling right now immediately after breakfast.

I'm not greedy. I'm more hungry. I eat very healthily. The only way I can maintain a weight under 30bmi is to suffer, essentially. Naturally thin people don't feel like this. They get full faster, it sustains them longer.

It's like telling someone off for being worse at running when they have shorter legs then average. It's possible for me to win a race but I have a big disadvantage and have to work much harder.

Yeah that 2000 cals advice really annoys me . I was eating about that in my maintenance phase for years and remained slim, but as I’ve said it was offset by a lot of walking 7 days a week. At my height I should really only be eating 1400-1600 calories or so at maintenance. Currently at 1200 to lose weight and it’s working. But my lifestyle is way more sedentary now.

They should encourage people to find out what their daily calorie allowance is based on height and activity etc instead of just throwing out that number so much.

To be fair, they do day '2000 calories for the average woman'. People need to take responsibility for themselves. There's plenty iv calculators online to work out your calories needed for your height/weight/activity levels. Or even if you don't look at those, you would realise if your weight is changing if eating 2000 calories.

*say

I’m a fidgety person - none of my family are fat. I have a friend who takes ages to get up in the morning -9am was too early for her to get up to join me for a walk. I wake at 4, up at 6. She is overweight. Though she is a busy ish person but me being up for hours more must affect calorie burning.

Bullshit. I'm fat as hell and wake up at 6

I agree genetics plays a part - some
bodies are built to deal with dif climates and environments

having said that - when I’ve been away with friends it’s pretty obvious that my thin friends really don’t eat and drink as much as larger friends.

I am just saying they should make it more clear as a lot of people are clearly not aware.
The messaging isn’t working as well as it could.

I put on lots of weight in my early 20s while at uni back in the noughties and decided to lose weight at age 23. I don’t think online calorie calculators were a thing /very common back then, but I was reading up a lot on stuff on weight loss so I figured it out early on in my adult life anyway and ate around 1400 calories to lose weight .

Personally speaking I was aware I was eating over maintenance for my size/height when I went back to eating around 2000 calories for the rest of my 20s and early 30s, but as I said the walking offset it so I was fine weight wise.

However, I realise many others are less aware of correct calories allowance.

The best is for public health advice to be as clear and accessible as possible. There needs to be more emphasis on the fact for many women it’s much less, and I think it wouldn’t be to hard to get that across with another sentence. Because many women are genuinely shocked when I tell them my calorie allowance because they keep seeing the 2000 figure and it didn’t occur to them a shorter woman might need SO much less.

Genetics definitely play a part. Two of my kids are whippets, not a pick on them but my DD is a bit dumpy. I'm the same, I am now about a half a stone overweight and she is at the top end of a healthy weight but we definitely have a tendency to put on weight more then the others.

Habits play the biggest part though, snacking, eating in front of the telly, how much you put on your plate, how often you move throughout the day. So hopefully I'm laying down the foundations of having healthy habits, so they can be as healthy and active as possible,

You have three children who are all in the same environment but have different bodies, surely this shows it's more than just that and it's a biological predisposition

@Rollorock

I agree they could add a bit of extra info to be clearer. But I also think people are good a finding out about things they want to know about and pretending to not understand or not gaining knowledge where it suits them not to.

My maternal family are all morbidly obese. My paternal family are all pretty slender. I take more after the maternal side so have to work super hard to stay what I would consider "mid size" (12/14). This includes 12/15k daily steps, weight lifting several times a week and some cardio. I'm also mindful about what I eat. I probably drink too much wine which doesn't help at all but I've cut that right down. If I didn't live how I do I suspect I would also be morbidly obese.

I spend a lot of time with both sides and have noticed the obese side like a full meal but the slim side are more grazers, or prefer more frequent small meals and I have noticed the obese side are largely inactive. The other side are not. So it's not rocket science is it? I do think there is a genetic component though because it seems very clear when you put them all side by side. My own mum was very slender until menopause and then piled it on. I'm trying very hard to avoid that. Ultimately, you need to eat less and move more but the psychological issues surrounding food for many is the issue that needs addressing.

I took part in a research project for one of the London universities. It looked at 3 specific genes that predispose people to gain weight. These would have been a survival advantage in years gone by when food was scarce. I have two of those genes and therefore am more likely than someone with one gene to lay down fat, but less likely than someone with all 3.

So, there is definitely a genetic link, but there is also a shit tonne of food that predisposes us to lay down fat too. Highly processed energy dense food and a sedentary life will do this.

Similar here. Daughter is very slim with not an ounce of fat on her. Son is stocky and carrying too much extra weight, however, he's at that difficult early teen hormonal stage and judging by the size of his hands and feet, I suspect he'll shoot up in the next year or two and it will even out.

This. Some people/races are naturally more lean. It doesn't mean that diet and environment isn't a factor, nor that you can blame your genetics for your 2 a day burger habit, but some people would have to go to unhealthily extreme measures to be very lean, others won't.

I saw a documentary about an American ultra triathlete who had a pot belly. They DNA'd him and he was Siberian by genetics - predisposed to storing fat for the lean winter months.

You only need to look at the increased prevalence of obesity and increase in average weight over time to understand that’s it’s environmental and not genetic factors which are the main driver of weight increase.

While it’s possible that one person might take fewer calories from an apple, and it’s true that muscle mass and variations in maintenance calories have an effect, in the end it’s simply calories in and calories out. Weight distribution is certainly genetic.

But as we all know, that’s easier said than done to eat less. We are surrounded by calorie dense food which we are programmed to crave.

My DS, I have no idea how, simply stops eating when he feels full. He’s happy to leave some food on his plate. I demolish everything.

Yeah fair enough - that is true! People can stick their heads in the sand.

I did used to work in health comms but maybe brighter scientific minds than mine have decided on 2000 for a reason.

personally if I was going to have an average figure out there as health advice , I’d go for something like 1800 calories or put a range. Especially as most people underestimate how much they eat even when they claim to be tracking calories.

I feel some people hear 2000 and think oh well if it’s in the “2000s” it’s fine 🤭so would be better to get them “thinking lower” so to speak.