Are you overweight? Did you gain several pounds during the pandemic like many people have? Well, let me provide you some proof your weight is almost entirely genetic and not your fault.
After reading this post you will hopefully: 1) stop beating yourself up for why you aren’t in shape, 2) stop feeling guilty about what you eat, 3) stop spending money on diet fads, 4) stop spending money on exercise equipment, and 5) gain more confidence and self-esteem.
My Struggle With Weight
I’ve struggled with staying in fighting shape ever since I entered college. As an athlete who played competitive tennis, I was always about 152-155 in high school with a body fat percentage of under 7%. I benched 1.5X my body weight and clocked a 4.5 second 40 yard dash.
When tennis season was over, I ran the anchor for the 4X100 and 4X200 relay. Sports was a huge part of my life and I don’t think I can happily live without it.
By the time I graduated college, I permanently gained the freshman 10. After my second year of working 70 hour weeks in NYC, I ballooned to 175-180 lbs. My strength and speed dissipated. I got sick a lot, had horrible allergies, and even came down with the weirdest case of plantar fasciitis.
My breaking point came when a female colleague I fancied nonchalantly said I looked like another out of shape colleague. I was crushed, but knew she was telling the truth as I looked in the mirror to spot the first signs of jowls. What the hell are jowls?!
I proceeded to work out like crazy for six months in the gym upstairs. I even bought those “Ripped Fuel Extreme” pills filled with ephederine, a substance that is now banned!
In three months, I got down to 165 and felt better. But you know what? I’ve been 162-170 for the past 20 years no matter how much I exercise or how little I eat. Something must be up!
Genetics Determines Your Steady Weight
On Sept 18, 2012 an Ohio state parole board recommended that an obese inmate on death row should have his sentence commuted to life in prison. At 470+ pounds, Ronald Post, 53, was sentenced to death by a three-judge panel in 1985 for the 1983 aggravated murder of a hotel clerk after entering a plea of no contest.
In other words, Ron has been in prison for 27 years, and is still obese. We’re not talking 20-50 pounds overweight. We are talking 250 pounds overweight.
When you think of prison, you think of minimalism. They are not serving double cheeseburgers, scallop potatoes, rib-eye steaks, nachos, Twinkies and other fine foods. Instead, prisons are feeding inmates carefully rationed amounts which fall under general recommended guidelines.
In fact, here is the 2012 Federal Bureau of Prisons Certified Meal Menu. Most states are also under siege due to budget constraints. Therefore, the last thing a prison will do is give inmates more food than necessary.
If you are in prison for 27 years and you are still obese, how do you not concede genetics has almost everything to do with weight? Sure, we can watch what we eat and exercise a bit to improve our fitness and lower our weight at the margin. But, the vast majority of our weight explanation seems predetermined.
Let’s Recognize The Truth About Weight
You think I’m being stupid for thinking we have no control over how we look. That’s fine, but I’m trying to be unbiased and 100% rational here about the explanation for how someone could be obese after 27 years in prison with budget cuts and food rationing.
We do have control over how we look, but how much control we think we have is an illusion.
I used to believe working out and eating healthy made up 70% of the reason why we look the way we do after watching contestants from The Biggest Loser shed literally hundreds of pounds over a three month filming.
The remaining 30% was due to genetics. I was pushing 170 pounds at the beginning of the year and needed to believe I could make a difference.
After eating less and working out vigorously, I ended up hitting 158 lbs and stayed there for several months until I went on a 2.5 week cruise to Scandanavia at the end of September. During this trip, I gained everything back.
You Can Only Do So Much To Lose Weight
Genetics plays a greater part in our body composition that we think. No matter what, my “happy weight” will always hover around 160-170 lbs. I’ll be happier at 160 lbs than 170 lbs, but below 160 lbs I’ll start getting pissed off because I’ll always be hungry! At over 170 pounds, I’ll also start getting annoyed because I’ll be slower, my pants will feel tight, and my face will start looking like dough. Genetics has an immutable way of normalizing our weight back to a predetermined range. Exercise and extreme dieting can help you get below your range briefly, but you’re going to mean revert sooner or later. How else do we explain why the large majority of diets fail? Everybody needs to stop beating themselves over the head wondering why they can’t stay thin. Stop thinking we need to look like the actors we see on TV or the models we see in magazines. The industry is simply selecting those people who have weight bands much lower than the average person. Folks we see on the big screen are also more attractive than the average person. They are the anomaly, while what we see all around us is reality.Time To Lose Some Weight And Get Healthier
While we work ourselves out of the global pandemic, now is the time to eat better and exercise more.
Further, if there’s one thing the pandemic has taught us, it’s that life is not guaranteed. As a result, please get life insurance. Not only should you get enough life insurance to cover your liabilities, your life insurance term should last long enough to get your kids through college.
The best place to get life insurance is through PolicyGenius. PolicyGenius will help you find the best plan for the lowest price tailored to your needs. PolicyGenius provides free, no-obligation quotes so you can get the best rate.
In the past, you would have to get a life insurance quote by applying to individual carriers – the process was completely opaque. Now, you can have multiple qualified life insurance carriers compete for your business after applying on PolicyGenius. It’s so much more efficient!
After eight years of owning life insurance, my wife decided to check on PolicyGenius for free to see if should could do better. Lo and behold, my wife was able to double her life insurance coverage for less money. All this time, she thought she was getting the best deal with her existing carrier.
If you don’t have life insurance, please get life insurance before you need to. Life insurance gets more expensive the older you get. If you get sick, depending on the severity of your sickness, you might not be able to qualify.
If you do have life insurance, I highly recommend checking PolicyGenius to try and get a better deal. Chances are high you’re not getting the best terms. Overweight people have a higher chance of heart disease. Protect yourself and your loved ones!
Comments
Trackbacks
-
[…] Proof Your Weight Is Almost Entirely Genetic And NOT Your Fault […]
this is cope lol how could u possibly think ur weight is genetics???? it’s thermodynamics 101 calories in calories out
weight doesn’t pop in from thin air the idea that ur weight is genetics defies common sense and pyschics
Holy crap this is laughable! The “proof” that obesity is genetic to the point of no individual control is an obese guy in prison and the author gaining weight while being glutinous in a cruise.
My dad, mother, brother, and sister are all obese, yet I am not, at 51 years old. The reason is due to diet and exercise. I’m never hungry and 100% in control of what I eat and how I exercise.
Hopefully the financial advice is better than this crap.
Ask all your family members What they think. And if you care about them, why don’t you encourage them to eat better and exercise more? Let’s see if it makes a real difference.
my question has to do with this. while it seeems eryoneinvolved in my fortune are playing a game i wonder who sincerely admits it, has become overly invested in has regained their original reasoning for and sought ways to personally gain in a way that ultimitely benefits themselves while also taking into consideration the status quo. furthermore has anyone besides me taken light of the true meaning of sacrifice to self. Ready, Set…4:42pm(pst)
I wish the author had shown peer reviewed research to back up his comments about obesity being genetically determined as it would have made this article a lot more credible and the discussion afterward could have been productive verses this bickering. However, the author IS correct that obesity is related greatly to genetics several peer reviewed papers published in med journals back up his claim. Here is just one which proves his point. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1893129/
Thanks for backing up my claim!
Really now? Concentration camps anyone? That’s proof of concept for you.
You need to count your calories or otherwise learn to control the amount of food energy you put in. You’re not going to lose weight by relying on your appetite – that’s how you ended up gaining it in the first place! If you lost the weight by dieting and exercising then that’s proof enough that diet and exercise works.
Failure to maintain weight is another thing entirely. Of course binging or otherwise reverting back to your old eating habits will promptly put the weight back on especially after a prolonged period of a steep energy deficit. Doing the same thing and expecting different results is silly. Repair vs maintenance. Does that not make enough sense to you?
Of course weight loss and maintenance is hard and mostly devoid of enjoyment. So is getting a college degree, running your own business or just working for someone else. You need to know why you’re doing it in the first place and enjoy the results it brings, not necessarily the process itself. It just becomes another daily chore then, nothing you can’t handle.
Not everybody has it in them to become a math prodigy, a witty comedian or a huge bodybuilder, yet it’s physiologically possible for everyone to get deathly lean (not that you’d ever want to). This is one thing that genetics absolutely won’t preclude you from achieving, though yes of course it is harder for some and easier for others.
It’s much easier to have to do one “chore” per day and be free the rest of the day, than having to deprive yourself of something, which is a permanent toll and not something you can get free from, there is nothing you can do to stop wanting to eat something that you are not allowed to, no matter how much of other non-tasty stuff you eat. Personally so far I wasn’t able to stick to any diet for more than 1 or 2 weeks. Even though I’m not very overweight, just wanted to lose a few kg, but so far little luck (have been trying for a few years now). Not sure if exercise helps either.
Not sure how this blog string works since the dates are all over the place but in response to Razwell or anyone who wants to argue for their human limitations. I’m sorry you feel that way because you close down all sorts of possibilities to have a healthier and happier life. I could and have written pages on the subject, but whether one’s excuse for anything is genetics, ignorance or simply complacency, they can change AND that includes genetics. But the most important commonality for all is belief and we all want to feel we are right. But if one can open up their belief horizons to allow for improvements in their lives, it can be a beautiful thing. To paraphrase something that Einstein said, “One of the most important decisions we can make is whether we believe the Universe is supporting us or against us.” I choose the former!
You need to give that belief up , it is just feel good nonsense. You need to accept the cold hard reality . Many people tried harder than you could imagine. Genuine science backs the experience of the obese and shows most people are ignorant that body fat is largely genetic and involuntarily controlled. This is the data Dr. Liebel said the body has a MIND OF ITS OWN REGARDING FAT . No scientist oooked at this more carefully Plus severely obese people observed in worse than Haiti level poverty
Jesus why people are so stubborn and can’t accept this simple truth.
Once again people are trying to hide behind the excuse of genetics. You are not a slave to your so called genetics. Not everyone with fat parents and siblings will be fat. Who is to say what your personal limits are. It sounds so nice for lazy people to give up and have a built in excuse. If you are not pushing yourself to exercise and accounting for ALL the food you take in there is plenty of wiggle room to blame genetics. Put the fork down, do your cardio and if you are unhappy, work harder. Yes harder. Whining will not make you fit!
you are totally ignoring science. GENETICS MATTERS THE MOST- IN OLD AGE LONGEVITY, HEIGHT, OBESITY ETC.
What do you mean by “science”? Are you referring to one particular finding, while discrediting thousands of others?
Longevity, height, and obesity are all biochemical factors that are strongly influenced by the chemicals that we consume (yes, all foods are 100% chemistry. every molecule of food is on the chemical chart, and affect the biochemistry of our bodies through specific, chemical reactions).
Why are Asian children who are born in the USA often much taller than their 5-foot parents? Because of the foods they eat – specifically, higher in protein, higher in calcium, and higher in zinc (zinc is deficient in most global diets, hence stunted growth).
Fatness is just a lack of control, and eating foods that shouldn’t be a part of the human diet. If you’re fat, cut all grains out of your diet. If you really want to lose that chunk, lose the nuts and beans as well. Then you don’t have to go hungry and you can still lose weight.
Oh yeah, and don’t forget exercise. It’s actually not that hard. Turn off that TV, and spend some time being useful to yourself.