Reversing the "Fat Gene"

This is an article from Oxygen magazine, January 2009.  Ok, so one more excuse, will have to be erased from our book!

Reversing the "Fat Gene"

Study shows that exercise and weight training could stir your gene pool.

Exercise can cancel out the fat genes swimming in your gene pool.

A study out of the University of Maryland School of Medicine has revealed that physical activity, like power walking or weight training, can help to counteract the gene that causes people to gain weight.

The culprit responsible for whether or not you get the fat from mom or dad is the obesity related FTO gene.   So yes, genetics do play a role in what you look like in and out of the gym, but science is now showing that controlling weight gain and how much fat your body packs is within your control.  "Our results strongly suggest that the increased risk of obesity due to genetic susceptibility can be blunted through physical activity," says Evadine Rampersaud, Ph.D., lead author and a former postdoctoral at Maryland School of Medicine who is now at the University of Miami Institute for Human Genetics.  "These finding emphasize the important role of physical activity in public health efforts to combat obesity, particularly in genetically susceptible individuals."

Looks like people around the world will have to come up with new ways to blame mom and dad.