We’re all aware that genetics plays a role in weight loss but the story is told to us in some sort of vague accusation. As if it’s OUR genetics that are faulty… leaving us cursing the fact that we didn’t get better genes in the big raffle.

The role of genetics has been largely misunderstood. A lot of time has been spent on searching out the “fat gene”. Somehow thinking that a category of people will eventually be able to take a pill and shut this gene down. Several times in recent years this “Fat Gene” has been found by different teams of scientists only to later be debunked as existing in thin people too.

The fact is that we ALL share the genetics that allow us to gain weight. It’s a critical survival tool. We all come from an unbroken an ancient lineage of survivors. We are from the survivors of food stress and famine; survivors of malnutrition; survivors of war and exploitation. These are the genes we carry. We carry the genes of ancestors that fought conditions that may be unimaginable to us in modern times while subsisting on foods that were makeshift at best.

The human condition in earlier times was a constant cycle of famine; long periods of time without food or with only nutrient poor foods. That cycle put direct pressure on our genes. People that could store the energy to live through the cycle made lived to pass on their genes to us. Those that couldn’t store energy didn’t. We now all carry the genes to help us survive famine even though most of us don’t ever have to go a day without food unless we decide to.

The role of individual genetics in weight gain has never been proven to me more than a minimal blip. So don’t lose hope and know that you carry the genes of only survivors.