Posted February 18th, 2009 at 3:15 pm in Low Carb

The Cheater In The Weight Loss Game Is Fat

How is it that a short, fat guy – 5'9" tall and weighing in at 260 (me) be considered healthier than men much taller and thinner? In spite of my allergy to regular exercise I still manage five sets of 10-pound fork presses at the dinner table, am able to regularly walk 3 miles a day, play vigorously with my chocolate lab, camp in my RV and dance like Arthur Murray on Saturday nights. I should be in shape, right? then why is it that whenever I see a picture of myself I want to crawl into a bed of pasta and hide? I read somewhere that fat doesn't play fair and now I am beginning to understand why.

What helped me to understand my dilemma were these new Fat-Busting scientists, geeks who spend their days poking and probing chubby mice, experts in the field of epidemiology (the study of health in populations), who can now talk about openly and convincingly about how genes, hormonal imbalances, some viruses, stress, even ear infections play a role in obesity. Ok, fine. All we want to know is – how do us regular folks find someone who can say with confidence; this is why you can't lose weight. Then tell us how we can!

That day may be closer than you think. Those chubby mice we talked about earlier taught scientists about the "fatso" genes in all of us. People with two or more fatso genes are more likely to develop diabetes and be more overweight. And they say that there could be as many as 100 fat genes out there! What does that say for our chances of losing weight just by diet alone? Maybe genetics plays more of a role than just the cute little dimple you acquired from Mom.