Weight Loss - Are You Carrying the Fat Gene?

Posted 16 February 2009

Weight loss is increasingly an issue for more of us, and if you are genetically vulnerable to obesity, you need to take weight loss seriously.

Weight loss isn't just about looking good in a pair of jeans - it's about feeling good too. Weight loss can be crucial in terms of overall health. Increasingly, evidence is emerging that excessive weight, especially weight around the stomach area, is linked to serious health problems, including diabetes, cancer and heart disease. But weight loss is something half the population in the UK may have to take very seriously - British scientists say it is estimated half of us are vulnerable to obesity, diabetes and heart disease thanks to our genetic coding.

Weight Loss - A Matter of Centimetres

When it comes to excess weight and serious health problems, you don't have to be massively obese to be thinking seriously about weight loss. In fact, scientists say those of us with the genetic coding that makes us vulnerable to obesity and ill health are on average just 4.4 pounds heavier, or have a thicker waistline (an additional 2cm). But being slightly heavier can impact on the effects of insulin, leading to Type 2 diabetes. Lifestyle changes to achieve permanent weight loss could make a massive difference in balancing these risks.

Weight Management and Weight Loss - Reducing the Risks

Weight loss and weight management can only be achieved healthily by combining a nutritional diet and exercise. And yet, many of us simply find it too difficult to stick to such diets. Often, those who have coaching and a structured approach are more successful at adopting to healthier lifestyles. But the threat of serious health problems could also be an additional incentive to encourage healthy weight loss. Researchers are hoping that by introducing screenings to discover who has the 'fat gene', the results could help those people take steps to reduce the risks.

Are you Vulnerable to Obesity?

Weight loss is more than cosmetic - it can save lives. And with almost a quarter of British people (20% of men, 25% of women) estimated to be obese, weight loss schemes could help tackle the huge number of illnesses and deaths as a result of excess weight. Currently an estimated 30,000 people a year are thought to die from weight related conditions. The 'fat gene' as it has become known, isn't a gene as such but sits closely to a gene that regulates energy levels - which in turn impacts on appetite and energy consumption. The findings and research could also point to dedicated weight loss programmes directed at ethnic groups - Indian Asians have been found to have a higher prevalence of the gene, making them more vulnerable to obesity; it's thought this ethnic group will account for 40% of the world's heart disease statistics by 2020.

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