XPOST Do you believe in the fat gene?

I posted this in the VSG forum where I mostly frequent but I know OH members of all different surgeries, and non surgical treatment can relate so I wanted to repost here for some more discussion.  I typically don't embrace any scientific notion as fact until it has been proven over and over but speaking from my perspective I believe in the fat gene.  It used to be thought that the FTO gene was the gene thought to be most responsible for some people's inherited propensity to become obese.  Lately scientists and geneticists are looking at the IRX3 gene.  Researchers found when the IRX3 gene was activated, mice and people were likelier to be obese, and to have diabetes. When mice were bred without the IRX3 gene, they were lean, even when fed a high fat diet.  I know my baby (6) would eat until he threw up and then go back and eat some more if we let him all day.  I reazlize that it is not black/white and having a propensity towards alcoholism or any other addiction/habit does not warrant a lifetime struggle for all, but I think there exists a real chance that this would complicate and increse the likelyhood of obesity for some. 

I for a minute thought you were asking if I believed if there were any fat guys named Gene. I kid I kid. No I am usre there may be some truth to it but I know this. My mom is fat and her mom is fat. So guess where I learned to eat. They still eat crap to this day. They both are diabetic and drink regular pepsi because the doctor said you may as well drink that then the diet crap. I have told them how abou****er instead. My best friend and I were always around the same weight not anymore. His mom and his sister and some other relatives are all fat. He was drinking moutain dew at age 2. I am expecting a son in July and I already told my wife who is overwieght I want to instill in him better eating habits then we had. I am not saying total depravation but sweets on occassion and no soda.

My twin sons are 13 and they hate soda. They've tried it a few times and just don't like it. I think it's pretty cool that they don't like it. I think one of the reasons they didn't start to like it was because I just never gave it to them. 

I have not kept soda in the house since 2006 -when I divorced their dad. 

my nine year old nephew hates it as well. he still loves sweets a plenty though.lol i like the no soda thing but my wife likes diet so we always have that in the house.

I think there may be some truth behind this, but it can't all be blamed on a fat gene.  Gaining the weight is due to over eating, not eating healthy foods, and lack of exercise.  I do believe some people put on weight quicker than others and have a harder time losing weight than others.

  I have 2 daughters.  My 15 year old has yet to hit 90 pounds.  Even as a baby she was below the 10th % for height and weight.  She eats all the time. we joke that she has a hollow leg.  This is the child that will go back for seconds and would eat junk food if we let her. She never exercises and would be happy reading, writing in her journal, and drawing all day long.  My 13 year old daughter was almost 10 pounds at birth and always been in the 90%.  She started gaining weight in 3rd grade and by 5th grade was borderline overweight.  Most of this was due to snacking This is the child that has been involved in almost every imaginable sport. As she has gotten older I have noticed that she is slimming down.  I haven't said anything other that encourage healthy eating and exercise, but I do that with everyone.   She eats healthy foods, doesn't like chips and doesn't drink cokes(soda's depending on where you are from.)

After watching my two girls grow up I believe there is something to this.  My older daughter takes after my husband's side of the family.  My youngest takes after my side of the family.  I don't think I have done anything different with the two girls.

A brief note to watch for... I was also the hollow legged child.  I rarely exercised and read all the time. I didn't eat much junk except when we bought ice cream, but I ate loads of everything else. It was a family joke that my mom and sister had to watch what they ate while I was constantly trying to gain 10 pounds so I could be an even 100 pounds!  However, at 18 or so, apparently my thyroid kicked in and suddenly I really gained a LOT of weight.  

Since I went away to college at the same time, we blamed college life and more available junk food on the gain.  But it didn't stop.  When I finally got my thyroid checked, all the Dr could say was that it wasn't malfunctioning now, and that while it may have for a while, right now it had just reset itself at a new level.  This was my new normal.  

Here's the kicker - because my entire life up to that point was spent trying to gain weight, I had zero life skills for handling maintaining a normal weight.  I was used to outeating the other people in my family and it took me a long time to stop.  I really feel that this caused me many years of gain before I could manage to learn how to moderate my eating somewhat.

I am very glad that you are encouraging healthy eating and exercise with both of your daughters. I certainly hope nothing changes with your older daughter, but she is old enough you might want to pass on a word of warning to her to learn to make good choices on food and exercise.  

I believe that both genetics and lifestyle play a part.

Absolutely!  I'm convinced genetics plays a large part in people's weight.  How they gain/lose, how they respond to the reward of food, the taste of food, how much ghrelin/leptin/other hormones they produce, character traits that may contribute to obesity, etc.  Addiction to alcohol is about 50% explained by genetics and other addictions also have genetic components.  Of course, if you never try alcohol or heroin, you can't become addicted no matter what your genes are.  I don't see why food addiction would be that different.  Of course, we all try food.  I'm not convinced that there is one specific gene that explains it for everyone.  I think it's more likely that there are many genes that contribute to the way we are. 

Before his surgery, my husband used to say that he could quit anything if he could go cold turkey. His problem was that he actually had to eat food to live so he couldn't simply "quit".

I have been saying this for over twenty years - I absolutely believe it!  I have a friend who is a BEAN POLE.  She and I tried an experiment once for fun; for two weeks I ate the exact same things she did... same quantity, brand, same time of day etc.  At the end of two weeks I'd gained three pounds and she didn't gain anything.  Oh, and neither of us exercised at all (too hard to measure accurately).  And she doesn't exercise at all anyway!  My body just WANTS to store fat!  

Absolutely!  My great grandmother, grandmother, mother, myself and my daughter all overweight.  I have 4 brothers and sisters 7 nieces and nephews. None of my brothers and sisters struggle with weight (my mom fed us all the same and we all did the same chores).  I have 1 niece that struggles with weight, the women on her dad's side are all overweight.  My daughter has always eaten very healthy (she didn't want to be like me).  She will have a glass of soda every now and then, basically she only drinks water.  She exercises on a regular basis. She still is about 20 lbs overweight.