Doomed to be Obese?
Are you doomed to be overweight? Are all your relatives overweight so you feel this is the hand you were dealt? Judging from the statistics, you might understandably think so. Fifty to eighty percent of children of overweight parents will become obese, versus only about nine percent of the children of lean parents.
Heredity may dispose you to to be obese, but it is one medical condition that can be completely controlled by each individual. This isn’t to say it won’t be more difficult for some than others, but ultimately we all have the final say-so in whether or not we become obese. Researchers are constantly trying to determine just how genes may trigger someone to be overweight and how genetic factors interact with environmental influences to promote obesity.
There has been much speculation that obese children and adults may have lower metabolic rates than lean people but recent studies do not support that data. The influence of genes may be more subtle. Genetic factors may manifest themselves in such ways as making you like sweets or fats more than another person. They also may play a role in your willingness to exercise, but one cannot forget environmental factors.
If you were brought up on fatty foods and sweet desserts, you would naturally be more inclined to follow a similiar diet as an adult. The same applies to exercise. If you weren’t brought up in an atheltic environment or one that endorsed exercise as a way of life, it is only natural you would not be inclined to exercise, either.
The bottom line? You do have the choice. People do have control over whether or not they become obese and if they do, they have the choice to make changes to correct this difficult dilemna. It does require life time changes, which is not always easy to do. You need self discipline, motivation and determination. Therefore, knowledge of how to go about incorporating the proper changes is imperative as well as your attitude in applying those changes.
