The MakeMeThinner Support Forum

[pinkbugs471]

I have been reading a lot about family history and being obese. I guess research groups have isolated a gene that pre-disposes us to being overweight. My curious mind was wondering, how many of us were raised in an overweight / obese household. I know I was. The eating habbits I learned as a child have followed me my entire adult life.

Any one else have an opinion.......

[bikipatra]

My sister is morbidly obese but the only one in our extended family. We were taught balanced eating habits, always a bunch of green vegetables but my sister would sneak food.

[Elizabeth]

My grandmother died in 1957 at age 56. She was 325 lbs. My Dad his siblings were all well over 250...all dead now. I am the youngest out of 8 children and 6 of us are obese. My mother is considered obese but not so bad. Her sister was always very large.

Funny, my doctor asked if there were any obese people in my immediate family and then just shook her head as I told her the above...it is genetic she said.

[MerryMary]

I have been reading a lot about family history and being obese. I guess research groups have isolated a gene that pre-disposes us to being overweight. My curious mind was wondering, how many of us were raised in an overweight / obese household. I know I was. The eating habbits I learned as a child have followed me my entire adult life.

Any one else have an opinion.......

I haven't heard about such research although I'm sure there has been plenty. Still, it seems to me that if parents do not have healthy habits they have none to pass on to their children.

[Unca_Tim]

Here's a semi-related article:

Original article can be found here:
http://www.usatoday.com/news/health/2007-07-25-obesity-usat_N.htm?csp=34

One's weight 'socially contagious'
Enlarge By Toby Melville, Reuters

A passenger waits for a delayed flight at London's Heathrow airport. One out of three Americans are obese, which significantly raises the risks of heart disease, diabetes and other problems.

By Nanci Hellmich, USA TODAY
Obesity is contagious.
One person's obesity can significantly increase the chance that his or her friends, siblings and spouse also will become heavy, according to the first study done on how weight gain spreads through social networks. And if a person slims down, the people around him or her also may lose weight.

SUCCESS: From bad example to good

"Both obesity and thinness are socially contagious," says study co-author James Fowler, an associate professor of political science at the University of California-San Diego.

At the heart of the matter is the sharing of acceptable norms for weight, not just sharing the same eating and exercise habits, says internist Nicholas Christakis, also a study author and a professor of medical sociology at Harvard Medical School. If someone you care about gains weight, your notion of an acceptable body size may change. You may decide it's OK to go up a couple of sizes, he says.

FIND MORE STORIES IN: Reuters | Heathrow Airport | Obesity | Nicholas Christakis
About a third of Americans are obese, about 30 or more pounds over a healthy weight, which increases their risk of heart disease, diabetes and other problems.

In the study, which was funded by the National Institute on Aging, researchers examined social ties among 12,067 people in the Framingham (Mass.) Heart Study, a multigeneration collection of data covering 32 years.

Findings are reported in today's New England Journal of Medicine:

•When people become obese, the risk of their closest friends becoming obese over the next two to four years increases by 171%; the risk for their casual friends increases by 57%; their siblings' risk, 40%; their spouse's, 37%.

•The reverse also is true. When one person sheds pounds, it has a ripple effect and increases the chances by similar percentages that their friends, siblings and spouse will trim down, Fowler says.

•A man's weight has more effect on the weight of his male buddies and brothers than on his sisters or female friends. And a woman's weight has more effect on her girlfriends and sisters than her brothers or guy friends.

"Men look to men. Women look to women," Fowler says. This may explain why friends appear to have more effect on weight than spouses do, he says.

If one person gains, it can affect social ties with three degrees of separation, so a friend of a friend of a friend also is affected, he says. "One person's weight influences dozens of other people they are connected with both directly and indirectly. It can impact people who are connected through a mutual friend or family member."

Surprisingly, researchers found that the obesity risk is not affected by geographic distance. "If you have a close friend or a sibling who lives a mile or a thousand miles away, that person's weight gain can have the same affect on your weight," Christakis says.

John Foreyt, an obesity researcher at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, suggests: "If you are trying to lose or control your weight, pick your friends carefully. You may not want to be around people who are gaining weight or who are too heavy."

The study may have implications for treatments. "If we can get even a small number of obese people to lose weight, it might have a ripple effect, and we could contribute to reversing the obesity epidemic," Fowler says

[bikipatra]

Thanks. I sent the link to my sister.

[pinkbugs471]

If anyone is interested in reading about this, here is how I found it. I just googled obesity gene. There were several articles. I found this very intersting reading.

My mother and grandmother were morbidly obese. My older brother is also, as is his daughter.

[Mike]

I got a double whammy. My dad's side of the family are all obese and morbidly obese (as I was). My dad and uncle died from complications from diabetes and hypertension. One uncle is ailing with that but still with us. My cousin is in the same boat but seems to not want to do anything bad enough.
My moms family are similar. Lots of heart problems (no diabetes that I know of). Currently I am helping both uncles, an aunt, two cousins and my mom to become healthy using this program.

There is definitely research to show predispositions.

[Mickeyz]

My Grandmother always struggled with her weight. She developed Type 2 diabetes and then constantly adjusted her insulin to fit her eating pattern. She spent years doing totally bazaar things to loose weight. She could go up and down by 30 lbs in a 6week period. Sadly she developed phlebitis at 64 and spent the next 20 years in awful health as a result of her years of abuse.

[DogMa]

Both my parents struggled with weight issues, plus had Type 2 diabetes and high blood pressure. My brother has all three. Half my aunts and uncles were overweight, and on my mom's side ALL of them were diabetic (including the ones who never had a weight problem and were actually very fit and athletic).

I've been lucky in that I do not have diabetes and have never had a problem with my blood pressure (if anything, it runs a bit low). But I've struggled with my weight since I was 9 or 10, and I've never been athletic. Till now.

[Yworry]

My fathers side of the family are pretty much all are overweight. The main problem I had growing up was my grandparents I guess you can call it a philosophy that I assume because I was the oldest and the boy, I would always finish the leftovers. "I can clearly remember my grandmother either saying oh don't worry Clint will finish it" or "Clint you should finish those up there really isn't enough to save" and God forbid we threw something away, because those POOR PEOPLE IN AFRICA or china or whatever place didn't have food. How many have heard that before. And no one ever told her that this was wrong or anything.

Of course another thing about influencing those around you, I know in our family at holidays or get togethers we ALWAYS make enough food to feed an army when there are only around 10. And if we go anywhere you always bring your best(calorie loaded) dish with you. We need to stop this vicious cycle. Now we have been thinking ok what can I bring that we can eat because heaven knows there won't be anything there unless we bring it. And lets not get into church pot luck dinners. Which I found extremely funny the last one I went to, everyone talking about weight while they were eating every casserole and dessert known to man.

But of course there has got to be a point where we just say enough is enough and learn new habits on our own. I have vowed that I would try my best to teach my sons health eating habits and NEVER NEVER allow people to tell them these crazy things or the whole you have to finish everything on your plate before you can leave the table (I mean unless you know they just are trying to get out of something). But when they are full they are full I mean really who normally plates their meals anyway, the parents or hosts and what if they are really full.