Your friend can eat whatever she wants and still fit into her prom dress, but you gain five pounds if you just look at that chocolate cake. Before you sign up for Weight Watchers and that gym membership, though, you may want to look at some recent research from Tel Aviv University and save yourself a few hundred dollars.

A womans waistline may have less to do with rigorous exercise and abstaining from sweets than it does with the genes of her parents, as per a new study by Prof. Gregory Livshits from the Sackler Faculty of Medicine at Tel Aviv University and his colleagues from Kings College in London. Dr. Livshits and colleagues have found a scientific link between the lean body mass of a woman and her genes. Theyve determined that thinness like your smile or the color of your eyes is an inheritable trait.


Bad News First, Then the Good
Prof. Livshits, whose findings were reported in the Journal of Clinical Endocrinology and Metabolism (2007), says, The bad news is that a number of of our physical features, including our weight, are dependent on our genes. The good news is that women still have an opportunity to go against their genetic constitution and do something about it.

Until now, researchers were not sure to what extent environmental influences and genetics played a role in a womans body size. When controlling for the variance of age, the differences in womens body sizes can be predicted in the genes more than 50 percent of the time, the scientists found.

Prof. Livshits conducted his study on more than 3,000 middle-aged women in the United Kingdom who belonged to either an identical or fraternal twin pair. He measured their total lean mass, one of the three major components of body weight, and compared it to markers in their genes.


A Slim Chance?
Additional collaborative research between the two teams, which builds on the past study, is would be reported in the next few months. It may help pave the way for a skinny gene test, which one day may help women trying to lose weight understand what kind of battle they can expect.

Those without the lean genes, however, will always find it harder to stay slim, predicts Prof. Livshits. But before your diet falls by the wayside, consider Prof. Livshits contention that genetics can be overcome.


Curb Your Enthusiasm
Its important to not have high expectations, he warns. Women need to know that what they can do about their body weight particularly when they age is relatively little, and they will do it only with much difficulty.

Very few studies to date have been able to associate a bodys lean mass with genetics. The topic is a specialty at the Tel Aviv University lab, one of the top labs in the world to study the genetics of aging of body composition. This area includes the study of bone, fat and lean mass as it develops in a person over time.

Research on body composition components their growth, degradation and genes is part of Prof. Livshits ongoing work on aging and health. Issues such as weight gain are complex, he says, particularly when age is factored in.

So dont get too jealous of your friends dress size. It may be mostly out of your hands and in your DNA.


Posted by: Evelyn    Source

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