Day One Hundred and Fourteen!!!

 How come two people can eat basically the same thing and yet one gets fat and the other stays thin?


Obesity has a large genetic component. You can identify that when we look at a family. Some families tend to be thin and some tend to be fat. 


What is really important to note though, is that your genes are not responsible for how much you want to eat and also do not determine how much you do eat. 


Genes determine how the food you consume is portioned into how much is going to be burned for energy, and how much is going to be stored for fat and also how much is going to be used to build muscle. 


Genes are responsible for our predisposition to gain weight, and it is our genes that determine how we will respond to carbohydrates. It is our genes that determine how much insulin gets secreted in response to our carbohydrate intake as well as how sensitive our lean and fat tissue is to that insulin. 


Some of us can pack into a carbohydrate rich meal and without any effort at all burn off all those calories eaten. Others respond to that carbohydrate rich meal by stashing away those calories into their fat tissue. Unfortunately, in this case, the carbohydrates eaten will motivate you to eat again, and again and again in the same way, and so those carbohydrate rich meals become a lifetime of repetitive carbohydrate intake that becomes a roller coaster of non stop eating. This repetitive cycle happens because of those increased insulin levels.


Researchers have found since the beginning of the 1930’s, that if your parents are fat you are more likely to be fat and if your parents are lean, you are more likely to be lean. This is due to body type. So, when you look at any family, it is easy to see which members of the family have the same body type. 


My mom remembers looking at the family that lived across the road, and she was able to identify how the father and daughter had the same body type, while the mother and son, the exact opposite. 


When I look at myself I can see that I have my dad’s body type and my brother and and mother have the same body type. The truth is though, that you and I can overcome this genetic component by paying attention to how we manage our carbohydrate intake and, how we respond to it. We can make a change and take hold of these genetics. We can overcome them by adapting a new way to look at food. We are not as tolerant as those that have a tolerance to carbohydrates, and that is ok. It just means that we have to look at our food intake differently and know that there are certain foods that have to be avoided, if we want to maintain our health and well being.