Genes Stacked Against Weight Loss?

Thousands of Genes May Affect Weight, Say Researchers Studying Mice

If weight loss was one of your New Year’s resolutions, don’t expect your genes to get you to your goal.

In a new report, scientists estimate that more than 6,000 genes affect weight in mice.

Though those findings came from studies of mice, they may have meaning for people, notes researcher Michael Tordoff, PhD, of Philadelphia’s Monell Chemical Senses Center.

"Reports describing the discovery of a new ‘obesity gene’ have become common in the scientific literature and also the popular press," Tordoff says in a news release. "Our results suggest that each newly discovered gene is just one of the many thousands that influence body weight, so a quick fix to the obesity problem is unlikely."

Searching for Weight Genes

Tordoff’s team reviewed previous studies of some 1,900 mouse genes. Most of those genes didn’t affect the mice’s weight, but 31% could boost weight and 3% could cut weight.

In other words, weight-gain genes outnumbered weight-loss genes by 10 to one, "which might help explain why it is easier to gain weight than lose it," Tordoff says.

The researchers’ estimates appear online in BMC Genetics. But there’s more to weight than genetics — for mice and for people.

Take diet, for instance. Eat more calories than you burn and your genes can’t bail you out of weight gain forever.

And then there’s physical activity. Sitting on the sidelines isn’t going to get extra weight off, whether you’re a person skipping your workout or a mouse with no running wheel in your cage.

The bottom line? You can’t change your genes, but you can work on eating healthfully and being more active. Genes aren’t the whole story, even if there are thousands of them involved

More information at Todo en Medicamentos.

Sticking to Diet Lies in Details

Focusing on the Details of What You Eat May Help You Heed Diet, Study Shows

Dieting for the new year? Paying attention to the details of what you eat may help you stick with your diet plan.

"Consumers can enjoy themselves more by focusing on the details during their experiences," reports University of Minnesota marketing expert Joseph Redden, PhD, MBA. "This could help people following a repetitive regimen," such as a diet.

"People usually like experiences less as they repeat them; they satiate," Redden writes. Satiation, he says, "makes it hard to follow a diet."

Sound familiar? Then get specific about what you’re eating.

For instance, instead of thinking "yet another salad," think "spinach salad with salmon." Or stop thinking "fruit for dessert again," and start thinking "apple," "banana," or whatever specific fruit you plan to eat.

Redden tested the detail-driven approach using jelly beans in five flavors: cherry, orange, peach, strawberry, and tangerine.

Redden gave 135 people 22 jelly beans, one at a time. As each jelly bean was dispensed, information about that jelly bean was displayed on a computer screen.

Some people saw general information, such as "jelly bean #7." Others saw flavor details, such as "cherry #7."

People got bored eating jelly beans faster if they saw the general information. And they enjoyed the experiment more if they saw the flavor details.

The message: Details cut down on that repetitive feeling and boost enjoyment, which in turn could help you stick with a diet.

More information at Todo en Medicamentos.