The "it's my genes" myth

I could not count the number of times someone plump said to me something like: "You eat more than I do (which was probably true) but you manage to stay slender. You MUST have good genes".

Just to set the record straight: my father was obese till he lost a lot of weight after getting very sick and eventually passed away. My sister is obese but has never accepted to hear from me that she eats too much junk (highly processed) food and gets close to zero exercise.

The truth of the matter is that only about 2% of the obese have "defective genes" that can be blamed for their condition.
In other words, 98% of obese persons do something wrong. The sad reality is that most of the overweight seek the explanation somewhere else (e.g. blaming their genes) instead of taking stock of their situation and starting questioning their habits.

In most cases, the reason why someone gains weight, often to the point of becoming obese is extremely simple: this person "consumes" fewer calories that he/she takes in on a daily, weekly or yearly basis. If you "burn" about 2,200 calories (Kcal) per day whereas you "eat" an average of 2,300 calories daily, then the surplus of 100 Kcal (this is significantly less than a single beer can per day!) will make you about 9 lbs fatter each year.

As a result, there are only 2 ways to prevent this weight gain:

• either burn more calories (for example by exercising more)
• or eat fewer calories

Some of you may wonder why they have put on weight over the years (especially after 40) whereas they don't eat more now than when they were younger. This is a very well-known phenomenon almost exclusively linked to sarcopenia (see my previous post about this essential fact).
To put it simply, as you age  your muscle mass drastically decreases (if you do nothing to counteract it)  hence your calorie requirements at rest go down. In other words, your Resting Metabolic Rate will decrease.
This is why working out is so important: the best way to stabilize your weight may well be to stabilize your muscle mass with resistance training.

I therefore recommend exercising more, especially weight training while eating smarter NOT eating less.

You may prefer to believe all the snake oil/diet products vendors out there because what they are trying to sell you is easier to implement (no effort involved). Still there is no way around this basic outlays/resources equation.

So don't start starving yourself or buying expensive diet products, start exercising and lifting weight.