
Skinny genes the 'secret to staying slim' - sjcsjc
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-46976031
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teekert
I'm very skinny and often get comments that I can and do eat anything, but I
think I have some traits that make it easy for me: I hate ice cream (that
fatty feeling in your mouth, ugh, I do love me some butter though!), in fact I
don't like most desserts at all. I always prefer savory stuff (like a sandwich
or olives for snacking) over sweet things (like cookies or candy). And I never
get hungry anymore at night after a good dinner. My wife can each crisps 2
hours after dinner, I don't know how she does it. Or even how people can eat a
piece of pie after a fulfilling meal, it just doesn't fit anymore. This could
be genetic.

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terryf
It is probably traits - I'm one of those people that can eat almost endlessly
(and yes, am not skinny). The problem is that I don't really feel full, no
matter what or how much I eat.

If I just continue, then I do get the uncomfortable feeling of my stomach
being overly filled even to the point it actually hurts, but still, I don't
feel "fulfilled" and have the desire to keep eating.

I'm trying to control it of course, but my life is basically spent almost
continuously with the feeling that I could eat some more right now. It's not
always hunger as such, although that comes by quite easily as well. It's a
continuous drain emotionally.

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notus
Do you use any drugs by any chance? and if so do you approach consumption of
said drugs with the same gusto. This seems more like a eating to be happy
thing rather than eating to be full.

~~~
terryf
Not any more and the hungryness doesn't seem to be related to moods too much.

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lsc
so, obviously, calories in and calories out are what controls your weight. But
that doesn't conflict with the idea that your success at managing your weight
in a world where calories in are increasingly cheap and calories out are
increasingly expensive is largely genetic.

I think I can speak to this a little bit; I've taken four points off my BMI in
the last year or year and a half or so, all through counting calories in and
calories out... and I'd rate the experience as slightly easier than trying to
breathe a little less.

The most annoying part was that everyone... fat people _and_ skinny people
would give me a hard time for actually tracking everything I ate. "Just eat
less," they'd say, along with some advice about how they have a friend who
lost weight on some fad diet that restricts not how much you can eat but what
you can eat. I had a doctor who told me to take the sides I'd normally eat and
cut them in half, you know, like I planned my meals or something.

For me? writing down what I ate was key; Obviously, (and this is likely the
genetic part) some people have something that causes them to be not hungry
anymore after they've eaten enough food. Whatever that is, it's obviously not
working properly in me, or else I never would have gotten fat in the first
place, so I need some external tracker to figure out if I've eaten enough.

(The other thing that seemed to be different about my experience than about
most people's was that if I went a lot below my maintenance caloric intake,
say, significantly more than 40% below for several days in a row, my work
performance would collapse. If I tracked my caloric intake and kept it around
25% below what I burned, i was okay, though it was still difficult.)

~~~
benj111
I think the hunger thing is habit?

If I'm in a job where I get a regular lunch break at the same time every day.
If for some reason I'm late my stomach starts rumbling really loudly,
conversely if I eat early I have problems eating because I'm not hungry. Now
this can be as little as 30 minutes difference either way.

I don't have the same issue at weekends though.

~~~
lsc
If you eat 25% fewer calories than you burn every day, and you do this for a
week, unless our physiology is dramatically different, you will feel hunger
that is not related to habit.

Interestingly, for me? If I cut down to the point where my performance falls
(closer to 40% for a few days) my hunger kind of goes away. Of course, I can't
really work in that state (I'm aware some others can) so it's not really
useful to me. If I want to lose weight while still working, it seems I need to
experience that hunger.

One of the annoying things for me is that because this hunger is such a big
part of my experience, I want to talk about it, and this... annoys almost
everyone. Aside from people on the internet who want to insult you for not
following their favorite fad diet, it's worse in person, because almost
everyone I've talked to about it in person seems to think I'm telling them
that _they_ need to lose weight.

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antirez
Weak scientific result put in the media as a new truth. It does not take a
genius to see any picture of Europe in '70s where there are people, to see
that with very rare exceptions everybody was slim. The same happened in
France, Italy, Germany, ... and now despite that we are genetically the same
people are fat. Maybe there are people genetically more inclined to stay lean
_despite_ the terrible lifestyle, but that would be another story and another
message: you still have control on your weight most of the times.

~~~
adrianmonk
Same thing in the US. Although I'm old enough to remember the 1970s firsthand
and to remember that most people were pretty thin.

Other things I remember from that time include: people not having microwave
ovens, people eating at home for the most part, trips to fast food restaurants
being only an occasional thing, regular restaurants having much smaller
portions, and a lack of social acceptance of being overweight.

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benj111
"Prof Tom Sanders, emeritus professor of nutrition and dietetics, at King's
College London, said: "This is an important and well conducted study
confirming that precocious severe obesity is often genetically determined"

No. It says that thinness is genetically determined. Yes one is the flip side
of the other, I don't think that allows the 'severe' though.

Professors should surely be choosing their words more wisely.

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tonyedgecombe
I was watching an interview with the scientist who conducted the study this
morning and she indicated it was both.

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black-tea
I've been obese. Then I stopped eating too much and haven't been obese for ten
years. The secret is not eating too much.

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mdekkers
I need to invest in a CRISPR home kit...

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calebm
Anyone know the SNPs involved?

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a_imho
BBC spam

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newfriend
Eating too much food the 'secret to becoming fat'

The secret to staying slim is to not eat more calories than your body uses.
Excuses like this will only make obesity even more common and accepted than it
is today.

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Wh1zz
Sure, but some might be genetically predisposed to make more efficient use of
calories (burn easier rather than store as fat). Which could make a massive
difference.

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black-tea
Actually the person who makes more efficient use of calories is more likely to
become fat because they don't need as much. There's also a lot of evidence
that burning through loads of energy will reduce your life span. Eating less
is always better than trying to burn more.

~~~
Wh1zz
> There's also a lot of evidence that burning through loads of energy will
> reduce your life span. Eating less is always better than trying to burn
> more.

I would think that it is highly dependent on what you're burning the energy
for... Surely if you eat more to maintain a fit body/lifestyle, it is likely
to have a more positive effect on lifespan compared to eating less and living
a more sedentary life?

Of course, an optimal balance needs to be struck between the two, but I am
very curious on what the research says about this balance.

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gaius
The thing is, for the vast majority of human history, the ability to quickly
pack on fat was a crucial survival trait, and those with “skinny genes”
wouldn’t last over a hard winter. It is only in soft modern society that it is
viable to live without onboard energy reserves.

~~~
collyw
Kind of depends on the part of the world you come from, no? Nepali porters
seems to be pretty slim and run up and down mountains for a living. Inuit seem
to be a bit rounder in general which makes sense given their environment.

~~~
gaius
Well, sure, manual labourers/athletes are likely to be lean in any culture but
what about the general population?

