By IANS
London : If you are overweight, blame your gene, claims a new study in London. Overweight means that a person has more body fat than he or she requires to stay healthy.
Researchers at the University college of London examined more than 5,000 pairs of identical and non-identical twins and found that genes contribute more to weight than lifestyles.
The study found that differences in body mass index and waist size were 77 percent governed by genes, reported the online edition of BBC News.
“It is wrong to blame a child’s excessive weight gain on parents – it is more likely to be due to the child’s genetic susceptibility,” said Jane Wardle, who led the study.
Wardle added: “These results do not mean that a child with a high complement of susceptibility genes will inevitably become overweight, but that their genetic endowment gives them a stronger predisposition.”
The study has appeared in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition.
It was important that parents did not give up on healthy lifestyles, Tam Fry, from the Child Growth Foundation, said. “The gene pool hasn’t changed so dramatically in the last 30 years, at a time when obesity has grown out of sight.
“Even if someone has a gene which predisposes them to obesity, it doesn’t mean they will become obese if they work hard to eat healthily, and take more exercise to burn off those calories.”