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It’s Not in Your Genes

Feb 10, 2017 | Ponderables

You know how some people blame their excess weight on factors beyond their control? “I can’t lose weight. It’s my metabolism.” Or “It’s genetic. My whole family is fat.” It turns out, that’s just not true. Well, your whole family may be fat, but not due to your genes.

Dr. Stephen O’Rahilly, a professor at Cambridge and a nationally known for his work on genetic and obesity, has said flat out, “There is no such thing as genetic obesity.” In some cases, genetics might account for a difference of about 2 ounces, he says. Hardly the difference between normal weight and obesity. And even that difference can be evened out if you exercise.

I have long believed that one of the biggest problems in the world today – if not the biggest –  is our unwillingness to accept responsibility for our actions, for our own lives. To me, this weight thing is just one more example of that. We are a society that when something goes wrong, looks first for someone else to blame. No matter what happened, we can sue somebody for it!

I saw an ad on TV once with a guy saying, “I was even at fault [in the car crash] and [Unnamed H. Lawyer] still got me …” and it was something like more than $150,000. Apparently I wasn’t the only one disgusted by the ad because I never saw it again. But it still happened. And I’m sure it has happened many times since then and will continue to.

It’s not somebody else’s fault. And fault shouldn’t even be the issue. It doesn’t matter. Just fix the problem. Even if you didn’t create it, you can still fix it.

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