How Are Heredity And The Tendency To Be Overweight, And Can It Be Controlled?

“Is it possible to influence the genetic predisposition to overweight? Or is it a sentence? If so, what mechanisms exist today to change the "genetic program?"

Reader marieclaire.ru, 26

Expert's answer:

Genetics is never a sentence. Even with very “bad” genetics, you can live happily ever after, and spoil the “good” with the wrong way of life. Nutrigenetics is a direction at the intersection of genetics and dietetics, which studies the influence of genetic polymorphisms on weight, on the features of the work of enzymatic systems. All this is associated not only with obesity, but also in some way with its "precursors" - diseases like insulin resistance, diabetes mellitus, atherosclerosis, arterial hypertension, Alzheimer's disease. We can influence all of the above, coupled with metabolic syndrome, and the tendency to be overweight.

There are people who assimilate animal fats more intensively and in large volumes than it should be, due to genetic polymorphism: that is, instead of 50%, all 75-100%. Let's take an example: if a patient with such a natural trait constantly eats pork kebab, then after a while he will look one and a half to two times larger than a person placed in the same conditions, but without genetic polymorphism.

Naturally, given this feature of the body, we will limit the consumption of animal fats by this patient. For such a person, frequent meals of pork and lamb are prohibited (it is possible, but rarely), but turkey, chicken, rabbit, veal, beef, fish, seafood are quite acceptable on a daily basis.

There is another point that plays an important role in weight gain - this is the rate at which carbohydrates are consumed in the body.

Carbohydrates are stored as glycogen (stores of glucose in the liver and muscle tissue). Normally, they should be spent at a certain rate: glycogen should be consumed from the liver in 3-4 hours, from muscle tissue under the influence of physical activity in 30-40 minutes. But genetic polymorphism (the replacement of one nucleotide with another) leads to the fact that a person begins to consume carbohydrates more slowly, and this cannot be changed in any way.

This type of people is called "energy-saving" - among its representatives, glycogen from the liver is spent not in 3-4 hours, but in 4-5 / 5-6 / 6-7. And the training time should be increased: even in an hour and a half, only glycogen will be consumed, and it will not come to the process of breaking down fats. Here dietary strategies play a decisive role, and sport acts as an auxiliary element.

It's the same with the diet. Someone practices intermittent fasting, someone eats twice a day, and someone is an adherent of multiple meals (5-6 meals a day). Genetics makes its own adjustments here too: depending on the rate of glycogen consumption, the optimal interval of meals is selected. If it is 3-4 hours, then a person may well eat 4-5 times a day. If it is 6-7 hours, then 2-3 times a day and no more. Of course, there are nuances regarding children, pregnant women, and elderly people - in such cases, you can increase the number of meals, but form them somewhat differently in terms of components - so that they do not contain carbohydrates.

Genetics determines our eating behavior. Normally, a person eats up during a meal, and the feeling of hunger passes in the process, and there is no tendency to form psychological dependence on food. But there are those who have these mechanisms violated. And then the feeling of fullness does not come immediately, but 15-20-30 minutes later after eating. All this time, a person does not feel full and, as a result, continues to absorb food. A strong feeling of hunger (a heavy feeling, when even the stomach hurts) may not pass immediately, that is, definitely not at the time of eating, but drag on for 20-30 minutes. As a result, a person eats his usual portion, but at the same time he remains hungry and continues to eat. This leads to overeating, obesity. But it is important to note that medicine has also learned to influence these mechanisms.

In general, we can influence the formation of any addictions - be it food or alcohol. Here you need to study the patient's neurogenetics, to understand what triggered excess weight gain (apathy, depression, etc.). It is important to note that such problems are easily corrected with nutrition, nutraceuticals (dietary supplements) or medications, the latter in the most difficult cases.