Ever felt like your genes are the reason why you feel so hungry all the time? Or that they make you lose control over your eating habits?
You might be onto something! But don’t lose hope just yet. Scientists say that simply watching what you eat could put you back in the driver’s seat.
The Gene-Eating Habit Connection
A study by the University of Exeter and the University of Bristol found an interesting link between your genes and your eating habits. The research, funded by the Medical Research Council Doctoral
Training Partnership, suggests that if you have a higher genetic risk of obesity, you could lessen these effects by up to half just by being more careful about what you eat.
Psychology PhD student Shahina Begum, who led the study, explained why this finding is so important. We’re constantly being bombarded with ads for high-calorie foods, she points out.
Understanding how genes influence our body mass index (BMI) can help us resist these temptations.
The study is the first to show that practicing restraint in our eating habits could potentially improve BMI in people who are genetically at risk of obesity.
The Power of Self-Restraint
Up to a quarter of the effect of obesity-linked genes on BMI can be explained by increased hunger and uncontrolled eating.
Researchers have identified over 900 genes that are associated with BMI. Many of these genes seem to influence our feelings of hunger and our loss of control over food.
The study looked at 3,780 adults from two UK groups, ranging from 22 to 92 years old.
The participants provided a DNA sample to calculate their genetic risk of obesity. They also answered questionnaires about their eating habits.
The researchers found, as expected, that a higher genetic risk score was linked to a higher BMI. This was partly due to increased hunger and uncontrolled eating.
But the surprising part was that those who were more careful about what they ate could reduce these effects by almost half.
Winning the Battle of the Bulge
There are different ways to practice dietary restraint. You could simply be more mindful of what you eat. Or, you could take more extreme measures like counting calories.
The study found that both these methods could potentially improve BMI in people who are genetically at risk.
What does this mean for you? It could mean that changing your eating environment or getting support could help you fight the battle of the bulge.
The researchers even created an app to help with this. It’s a game that trains you to stop yourself when you see high-calorie food. It could be particularly helpful for those with a higher BMI.
So, if you think your genes are getting in the way of your weight loss goals, remember: a little bit of self-control could go a long way!
If you care about weight loss, please read studies that hop extract could reduce belly fat in overweight people, and early time-restricted eating could help lose weight.
For more information about weight loss, please see recent studies that the Mediterranean diet can reduce belly fat much better, and the Keto diet could help control body weight and blood sugar in diabetes.
The study was published in the International Journal of Epidemiology.
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