Can you control weight?

Hey Guys!

Today I'm back with a completely new topic *drumroll*...... weight control! (Or really lack thereof).

What if I told you, you don't actually have that much control over your weight? That much of it is predetermined by genetics?

Well, according to research there is some genes that definitely impacts your likeliness to be obese/fat. According to BBC, there have been 75 genes in total identified to relate to 'obesity'. When I mean by 'relate to obesity', these genes ultimately control appetite (or lack thereof), eating habits, metabolism and how the body stores fat. Genetics, to a certain extent, is one of the reasons as to why you tend to see 'bigger families' and 'smaller families'.

There are other evidence that points specifically to the hormone leptin. Leptin is a hormone that communicates to the brain that you are full and that you don't need to eat anymore. In other words, it is the hormone that makes you feel satisfied after a meal. However, people have different sensitivity to this hormone. Some who are very sensitive gets easily full (and don't often feel hungry). This usually leads to skinniness and even anorexia. On the other hand, some are very resistant/tolerant to leptin. This prevents you body from feeling full, leading to over-eating, which (as we all know) leads weight gain and even obesity.

While it is still the general consensus that our lifestyle outweighs any genetic (especially hormone related) influences on weight, it is something we should definitely keep in mind. Personally my advice will be to keep your body's specific conditions in mind, and design your lifestyle to amend it. But really, this blog post is more to raise awareness for some science behind weight.

So anyways, that was a very serious post lol. But I really do hope it was insightful! Next week, I'll come back with something more unconventional and fun, so look out for that ;)

See you next time!