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The scientists summarized it in their paper: "The two major findings of this study were that there was a clear relation between the body-mass index of biologic parents and the weight class of adoptees, suggesting that genetic influences are important determinants of body fatness; and that there was no relation between the body-mass index of adoptive parents and the weight class of adoptees, suggesting that childhood family environment alone has little or no effect."

In other words, being fat was an inherited condition

The identical twins had nearly identical body mass indexes, whether they had been reared apart or together. There was more variation in the body mass indexes of the fraternal twins, who, like any siblings, share some, but not all, genes.


The researchers concluded that 70 percent of the variation in peoples' weights might be accounted for by inheritance, a figure that means that weight is more strongly inherited than nearly any other condition, including mental illness, breast cancer or heart disease.

The results did not mean that people are completely helpless to control their weight, Stunkard said. But, he said, it did mean that those who tend to be fat would have to constantly battle their genetic inheritance if they want to reach and maintain a significantly lower weight.

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ORIGINAL: juliaoceania

My son struggles with his weight, he is an endomorph, he is tall like me, and muscular with a tendency toward being overweight like his father. His father jogged and did all sorts of things to keep his weight down... he gave up and for huge eventually. I have a few overweight people in my family too. For most of my life I could eat whatever I wanted, and not gain a pound, and if they ate a fraction of what I did they would gain fast. I think that this needs to be addressed like any other medical condition... people need to be kinder about it.