There is hope for those who thought they could never lose weight because of inherited predilection to obesity. New research published in PLoS Medicine suggests that an active lifestyle can reduce people’s genetic predisposition to obesity by about 40 per cent. This puts into question the opinion that exercise doesn’t help people lose weight if they are genetically inclined to being overweight.
Researchers looked at 20,430 people in Norwich. All the participants gave a DNA sample, which was examined for one or more different genetic markers that were used to calculate their “obesity risk”.
Most people had inherited 10 to 13 of these variants from their parents, but some had more than 17 while others had fewer than six.
According to researchers, people who may be genetically predisposed to obesity can reduce their risk by 40 percent and shed those extra pounds by being a little careful and exercising regularly.
The study was the work of senior author Dr Ruth Loos, group leader in Genetics in the MRC Epidemiology Unit at the Institute of Metabolic Science, based at Addenbrooke’s Hospital in Cambridge, and colleagues. “Our findings further emphasize the importance of physical activity in the prevention of obesity,” Dr. Loos explained int the article.
Loos and colleagues wrote that while previous genetic studies have shown that a number of genes increase susceptibility to obesity, this is the first to examine the effect of a physically active lifestyle on such a predisposition.
