You might have some people say that weight gain or being overweight is due to a lack of willpower. This can be hurtful and make people feel unnecessarily guilty, especially as science has proved that there are multiple factors leading to obesity, outside of people’s will.

The way we feed us can be influenced by many factors: culture, personal income, personal tastes, education…and much more. All this can lead to a weight gain which is very difficult to stabilise. Other factors that are much less obvious are to be taken into account, and prove to us that we can not judge a person by his weight, nor evaluate his will to lose weight.

New causes of obesity

In the same way, staying thin is not just a matter of will, as a recent study published in April 2019 * has shown. Indeed, we have a gene (called MC4R) that regulates the feeling of satiety as well as weight gain.

However, researchers have noticed that there could be 61 variants concerning the activity of this gene. The more active it is, the greater the sense of satiety. It is also directly associated with our IMC, but also at the risk of diabetes type 2 and heart disease. The mutation of this gene, which affects 6% of obese people, leads to the absence of satiety after a meal and hyperphagia (eating very quickly and in large quantities). These people feel hungrier than others. All this, accompanied by a penchant for nibbling and eating fatty and sugary foods leads to weight gain.

The solution for those people concerned, who possess this mutated gene and therefore tend to gain weight, is to choose a well thought-out diet with the right foods with the right portions.

So do not blame yourself if you are already doing your best! See things differently with the main objective of being healthy. And in doing so, you will be relieved of an enormous weight (no pun intended).

At Maïa Baudelaire, our Bikini program includes follow-ups with a qualified dietician-nutritionist with a frequency of your choice. She will accompany you, step-by-step, with a week of menus designed according to your needs and tastes. The recipes will be available on our website. An objective will be set with your coach, and you will work together to reach it as safely as possible, without ever risking the famous yo-yo effect!

*Lotta, L. A., Mokrosiński, J., Mendes de Oliveira & Al. (2019). Human Gain-of-Function MC4R Variants Show Signaling Bias and Protect against Obesity. Cell, 177(3), 597–607.e9. doi:10.1016/j.cell.2019.03.044