Not everyone can control their weight! (Obesity in genetics, and the question: is obesity a disease?)

Have you ever looked at someone and thought about how they should lose weight? I hope that answer is a “no,” because of it isn’t, respectfully unfriend me. 

Anyway, I’ve dealt with many fatphobic or sizeism people in my life. Mostly people who were skinny. They always had to comment on other people’s bodies or make them feel worse about themselves. I, myself have dealt with this. And every single time I hear someone complain about “oh I hate how fat people don’t try to lose weight at all.” When theyre clearly trying

Obesity is most of the time genetic. And it’s usually 40%-70% of the reason why most people are overweight. Surprisingly, most people don’t know that, they assume it’s because that person eats too much or they don’t treat themselves right. While that can be a possibility, genetics make a big role of it. Even if their weight is caused by genetic or hereditary, the person’s lifestyle and diet still are involved. Genetics make it hard for that person to lose weight, and even if they have a healthy diet and workout everyday, they still haven’t lost weight.

Things like gaining weight also apart of genetics. As someone who has a hard time now gaining weight, metabolism has a big role in it. A lot of people’s metabolism is different. For example, my metabolism is much faster while my twin sister is a bit slower. 

Appetite and metabolism go hand in hand too. Genes can also cause someone’s appetite as Well, affecting how full they feel and how much food they can actually handle. The bigger your appetite, the more energy your metabolism is burning off, which can make someone easily gain weight. 

Genes also cause how much the body stores and releases fat, which can cause the inability to gain/lose weight.

Now, here comes the trick part. Something that gets discussed a lot. Should obesity be considered a mutation/disease? Let’s first find the meaning of both words.

A mutation is when chromosome gets deleted or rearranged, causing certain genes to change. If my version doesnt make sense, here’s googles definition.

G: the changing of the structure of a gene, resulting in a variant form that may be transmitted to subsequent generations, caused by the alteration of single base units in DNA, or the deletion, insertion, or rearrangement of larger sections of genes or chromosomes.

Some of these mutations are positive, negative, or neutral. But obesity doesnt sound like a mutation, does it? Definitely not. If it’s genetic or in someone’s hereditary, it wouldn’t be a change is someone’s DNA structure.

Now for disease, I’ll give you the Google definition, you bastards. G: a disorder of structure or function in a human, animal, or plant, especially one that has a known cause and a distinctive group of symptoms, signs, or anatomical changes.

Now this one is interesting. While obesity isn’t infectious or be treated with an antidote, it is still considered a disease by AMA. Diseases usually cause major or minor health risks, just like obesity can. While some people argue if it is or not, it’s really up to genetics. 

Sorry for my little rant, but I hope you learn something new