Maggie's Farm

Well except for the real experience of this issue you would be correct. Logically a starvation diet would get a 400 lb person down to 170 lbs and they could maintain it. But it doesn't happen. It is easy for a 220 lb person to get down to 170 and maintain it that happens often. But in general if a obese person (lets say a woman 5'3 at 400 lbs) makes a heroic effort to lose weight they are likely to not be able to reach 170 and would consider 200-220 a success. Then within five years they are back to 400 and more often closer to 450. Why? Gentics. I can eat everything I want all day all week all month and not gain a pound. Why? Genetics. My middle son who is 30 weighs about 135 lbs. When he was 18 he weighed 115 and had to gain 10 lbs to be able to enlist in the army. He eats like a horse. It's a family joke about how much he eats. So why doesn't he weight 400 lbs? genetics.

As to your earlier point that it is over eating so therefore it isn't genetics. I disagree. Over eating IS a genetic trait. You body is telling you to over eat. For most people when they eat a large meal they skip the next meal or eat lightly. Some still over eat next meal. Why? Genetics (in most cases).

Where the issue goes off the rails is when people believe that they are normal and so everyone else is like them. Simply not true. Most big people (that means heavy as well as tall) are genetically big. Their parents are big and theirt children are big. Not necessarily obese but big. Most people with big bellies can trace that trait back to their parents with big bellies. Again not necessarily obese (as in weighs 400 lbs) but clearly 'fat'. Then there are the many who are actually skinny to the point of being too skinny. They typically aren't dieting or eating one meal a day and in fact often they eat full daily calories. Why? Genetics. More than likely their parents (or at least one of them) is skinny as well. Another genetic tendency is that the child follows the weight traits of the same gender parent. It is common to see families where the girls are all overweight and the boys are not, you look at the parents and the mother is overweight and the father is not. Genetics!

We all have the ability to modify our weight up or down by a few pounds. Anyone who is 20 -30 lbs overweight can with little effort lose that weight. The genetics is more of a weight range thing than it is some absolute. At the same time since we can all easily lose 20-30 lbs by dieting we generally will quickly assume that someone who is 250 lbs over weight should be able to easily lose those 250 lbs. But they cannot. Their genetics kick in and their body retains fat, increases hunger and slows physical activity.

I have never met a obese person who liked being obese. Without exception they all want to lose weight and without exception they try to lose weight. It would be a mistake to simply believe that obese people choose that. They don't have the same body/genetics that the rest of us do. They literally have to exist on a starvation diet to lose weight and still they cannot get down to a 'normal' weight. Even those obese people who through Herculean efforts are able to lose 200 lbs they STILL have to exist on a severely limited diet just to maintain their new overweight but not obese weight. They are different from the rest of us. They are genetically programmed to be obese.