In high school, I worked out a lot (4 dance classes a week - I'm a theatre kid! Plus gym class every year) I also ate normal - maybe a little unhealthy compared to now, but certainly no moreso than the average student. I'd eat a slice of cheese pizza or a small bowl of pasta (1.5 cups w/ meat sauce) for lunch every friday, but mostly I'd eat a turkey sandwich w/ just veggies or soup or a salad (And I HATED mayo or butter or dressing or any fattening spread) for lunchtime. I never ate breakfast, but I munched on half a individual pack trail mix during homeroom (maybe 10am?), and the other half after school. I ate dinner at home - whatever my family had. We did not keep junk food or desserts, 95% of the time - my dad is pre-diabetic and obsessed with dieting, lol. On holidays and my birthday, I ate whatever I want - no worries about health.
Genetically, my whole family has some weight struggles. I topped off at the end of high school at 185. I was eating refined sugar a lot - white bread on pizza and subs, rice, etc. I can see where my eating wasn't the best it could be. Regardless - I don't think I ate enough to become obese without genetics playing some role.

I was adopted as an infant, and while my (adoptive) mother and grandmother had weight issues, they were both very thin as children. My two younger sisters are my parents biological children. I was obese since kindergarten. My sisters were both very thin as children. As adults, one has weigh issues but is still barely in the overweight category. The other has always stayed very thin, only occasionally (basically post-pregnancy) has had to diet.

Now, it would be very interesting to me, to find out what my biological family's weight issues are. If one or both are obese, or if obesity runs in their families, that would be a powerful statement of the effect of genetics in my situation, but ultimately it doesn't matter. My situation is my situation, it's not like knowing would change anything, well except maybe make me feel like less of a freak.

It just reminds me that I need to work on what I can change, and accept what I can't, without hatred or judgement of myself or others.

What do I think? Hmmm

Well, I think it's a nice candy coated article that will give people a reason to point and say "See! It's NOT my fault!" And THAT is something we DON'T need. Instead, we need to take some accountability so that we'll work towards our goals.

Now why do I feel it's bunk? Well, even the writer talks about how their mom used to offer chocolate for good behavior. THAT is not a GENE, it's learned behavior. And maybe his mother learned it from hers. If a GENE were to exist that made certain people fatter, why is it so prevalent JUST in America? Did most of the people with that gene come over on the Mayflower while the ones with the skinny genes stayed behind? I don't think that's the case.

I think we're ALL susceptible to learned behaviors, to gaining weight because we were TAUGHT to gain weight. The TV was our babysitter. The chocolate was our reward. And the clean your plate mantra, which mom piled so high it would take an army to eat it, stretched our tummies and made us crave larger portions than others.

Those skinny people who eat what they want? Nine times out of ten, they eat much LESS than the rest of us. Your friend with the donuts? Does she eat 3 meals a day. Is she real figgity? I had a skinny friend who seemed to eat whatever she wanted. Some times though, she skipped meals, she just didn't eat as often...or as much...as I did. I also watched her. When she talked on the phone, she paced, constantly. She thought nothing of walking out to get the mail, or walking to the corner store. While I'd get the mail on my way out in the car so I could pull up to the box, on my way to the corner store. While I sat in my chair while talking on the phone. She was hyper and worked off some calories just in her daily activities, just in her behavior, which is what people claim is that fast metabolism.

Well, since making exercise and healthy eating a priority in my life, I've noticed *I* now pace while on the phone. I think nothing of trotting out the box or the corner store. So did I have a slow metabolism, or did I just have to retrain it?

I STILL could overeat if not careful. Too many years of being fed oversized portions and being fed the wrong foods. But I don't eat nearly the amount I used to. Though it's still more than other people my size normally consume. Which is why I have to exercise religiously.

I also think that genetics sorta gives you the "ability" to gain if you don't behave. Some people would have trouble gaining if they tried... but just because you have the ability to gain easily doesn't mean you have to misbehave and make it true.

I saw a story on TV once that the lady swore up and down she ate half of what her thin friend did and she was like twice her size. Her friend agreed that that was true. So they studied what these women were eating, and the overweight woman was actually taking in 50% more calories.

It's possible our perceptions of what we eat versus what other people eat can be a bit off.

Re: people who seem to eat a lot and never exercise: perceptions can indeed be tricky, theirs as well as ours. For instance, since early July, I've been going to work by bike. That's about 70 minutes of biking several times a week, but *I* don't consider it like exercising--to me, it's just going from point A to point B, then back, much like if I were taking a car or the bus. But it is still moving and burning calories all the same. I guess that maybe people claiming they don't exercise may actually (at least for some of them) pace/walk/move more than what we and they think, but they don't consider it as such because to them it's 'normal'. (I would consider biking at the gym like exercise, because it'd feel like doing something extra, whereas biking to town is just, well, going to town to shop--and it doesn't matter if half the way consists in a heavy slope.)

I'm willing to believe that genetics play a factor. 5%, 50%, maybe, who knows and how to tell?

But really, what does that really matter? Weight really does come down to function of calories in verus calories burned. Eat less than you burn, you will lose. Eat more, you will gain. It really is that easy.

Ok, maybe I have to eat even less than my brother who has always been too thin naturally (seriously, the guy has to force feed himself and even then can hardly gain an ounce). So what? If I eat less than *I* burn, I will lose. What does it matter how much I have to eat compared to other people?

Sure, I might have work alot harder, and use alot more willpower than other normal sized people. It's not fair. But, it's not fair that some people get cancer when they are seven, get hit by drunk drivers, or are born into crushing poverty to drug addicted parents. But it is reality that these things happen.

And the reality is, I have the ability to deal with my weigh issues, regardless of what my genetic tendancies might be.

There are genetic links for countless disease processes and disorders, breast cancer, heart disease, high blood pressure.... I think assuming that people will use a "fat-gene" diagnoses as a reason to ignore their health and well-being is as ridiculous as assuming that people with genetic disorders or inherited propensities for cancer, diabetes, high blood pressure... will ignore their health if they realize their problem has a genetic basis.

There are a few people who will always say "what use is it to try, it won't work anyway." But fatalism is a personality trait, irrespective of size, race, social standing and objective reality. For most people, knowledge is power, and knowing what you're up against, is a good thing.

I don't think the "fat-gene" theory if proven, will change the behavior of overweight people. We will still want to be thin and healthy, and be "normal."
I think the only attitudes it might change are those of people without significant weight issues, who hold fat people in contempt for what they see as a defect of character and morality. They might be a little more compassionate, in realizing that while losing weight might be "simple," it isn't always easy for everyone.

I can agree with that. I haven't read the article or all the comments yet but I do think that eating is a learned behaviour. We watch what our parents eat and if they are active or not and it is generally easy to follow the norm. It takes us breaking out of that cycle to do something different. To make healthy food choices, to decide to be physically active.

almostheaven: she doesn't eat three meals a day... she eats lunch, dinner, and snacks 2-3 times a day also (usually on chips, ice cream, or candy), but skips breakfast entirely. She does eat large portions at dinner and medium portions at lunch. Dinner is her thing. When I am stressed out, I gain weight. When she is stressed, she loses it.

She DOES fidget a lot, though, whereas I am a lot less hyper (most of the time). She moves her hands and legs around for no real reason and is always playing with something. I think that is what makes her thin, honestly, because as we live together, I am around her most of the day ( was around her all of the day while self-employed) and see what she eats and how little she exercises.

I guess over time, fidgeting seems to burn a lot of calories! Most thin people I know who eat a lot ARE hyperactive endless balls of energy, even if they never exercise! haha

NightengaleShane

That is how my dh is as well. 5'10 and 145! He also has a very physical job. Endless ball of energy. Almost always fidgeting. Something else I read here recently....thin people will not eat if they are not hungry even if it is their fav food! Fat people will. So true with him and I. Yesterday we picked up pizza on the way home cause it was for my sons birthday. I was NOT hungry yet but it was more convenient then going back out later, neither was he. Guess who was eating on the way home? Cheesy bread!!! ugghhhhhh

Guess who did not eat til he got hungry?

I read somewhere that just a nervous twitch of the knee, the bounce that some people do with one knee while sitting and not even realizing they're doing it, burned so many calories...the article gave a number. But it was movement, energy being used, even if done without thought.

Harumph. I'm a fidgeter with no family history of obesity (or even over-weightness). How did I wind up getting so fat????


Oh. I know. Unrestrained eating. Bummer!

I know how I ended up fat. After a lifetime of it, I STILL eat out more than I prefer eating at home. I was raised on eating out. If we weren't eating out, we were eating at grandma's. And it was ALLLLLLLLLLLL fried. My family could take some healthy and turn it bad. Just hand em a stick of butter, a tub of lard and a skillet. They'll make it look nothing like the original product.

And oh it USED to taste soooooo good. Years being away from home and coming back a few years ago, it all doesn't taste as good as I remember it now. I've retrained my taste buds. But being back here, I could almost find myself falling into some of the old habits if I don't try my hardest not to. It's why when I did move back here, I chose to keep about an hour's distance. Enough so I can see my family regularly, not enough for their unhealthy pull.

I was raised on greasy foods, buffets, and television...lots and lots of television. It was on 24/7. We stayed inside, sitting most of the time.

Now as a child, you don't sit often. You want to ride your bike, play with friends. So all that greasy food got worked off in one form or another. But as we age, we don't do the bikes and friends so much. No, I had a baby and became a mom. I went to work sitting, and came home and sat. And...I got fat. Because I still ate the same way, the same God awful amounts that I'd always piled on, because that's what you do at a buffet, right? Yet I wasn't acting the same. I wasn't expending the energy. And those calories had nowhere to go.

When she is stressed, does she stop eating? When you are stressed, do you eat more? I know there ARE metabolic links to stress, but I think it really comes down to how much you eat and how much you burn!

BTW, I'm a "eat more" person when I'm stressed :) Recently I've replaced eating with exercising when I'm stressed and that's worked out WAY better :lol:

I eat more when I'm stressed. What I need to do is turn into some angry cranky person. When I'm angry, I CAN'T eat. I can't stomach food. LOL