The field of human weight loss is infinitely complex. The findings by public health experts, physicians, psychologists, molecular biologists and nutritionists are frequently at odds. ‘Everyone subscribes to their own little theory,’ says Robert Berkowitz.
Rather than a lack of will power in dieters, Leibel blames our genes and cites research suggesting that 6 percent of obese children and adults can trace their condition to some sort of defect in their innate makeup.
‘Radical changes are necessary,’ says Deirdre Barrett. ‘People don’t lose weight by choosing the small fries or taking a little walk every other day.’
‘We focus on appearance because that’s what everyone notices,’ Jeffrey Friedman says, ‘but losing even 5 kilograms vastly decreases your risk of diabetes, heart disease and high blood pressure.’
Your optimal weight, writ by genes, appears to get edited early on by conditions even before birth, inside the womb. Maternal diabetes may influence a child’s obesity risk through a process called metabolic imprinting, says Teresa Hillier.
Questions
1. Losing weight can have a beneficial effect on various areas of health.
2. Researchers are divided regarding how to lose weight.
3. A mother's health may affect her child's risk of obesity.
4. Some people inherit a genetic predisposition for obesity.
5. Small changes in behaviour won't cause much weight loss.