Do you want the bad news or the good news first?

The bad news is that we do have genetic tendencies for weight gain.  Some women gain weight more easily than others.

But I didn’t have to tell you that.

It’s in your genes, right?   You just got the dreaded fat gene, you gain weight just by looking at cookies, and there’s nothing you can do about it.  So there.

The GOOD news is that there IS something you can do about it. It’s been proven over and over again. Works like a charm when it comes to weight loss, boosting your metabolic rate, and living that slender figure of your dreams.

How to turn off your fat genes is the focus for this  week’s monthly FitDream Fusion Inner Circle call.  My notes on this topic are running into pages and pages, so those who are on the call, have your pencil and paper handy, because it’s going to be full of practical tips about how you can absolutely impact your genetic code and turn weight problems around; (and if you’re not a member at FitDream Fusion yet, there’s still time to jump in for this week’s call.)  I just couldn’t wait to slip a few juicy tidbits out to my readers today.

I thought I was doomed

I remember while in college I was dead sure I had not only hopeless fat genetics, but also a thyroid problem. There had to be a reason I was jogging every day and still fighting extra avoir du pois.  I had my thyroid tested on multiple occasions, and it always came up normal.  I not only was quite active (after all, I was a dancer, for cripesake!)  but sought to eat a healthy diet – of course the batch of cookie dough each week didn’t help.  I saw many other, thin college girls around me, and they were certainly far less discriminatory in what they ate than Iwas – at least that was my view.

Maybe you can relate to this experience.  For any of us who have struggled with weight I KNOW this has been in your mind – it’s just your genes, right?  The dreaded fat gene!

Here’s the truth.

Weight problems may run in families but genetic researchers now agree that although genes do affect our size and shape, the effects of these genes can be influence by lifestyle choices we make every day.

Your unigue genetic blueprint affects your tastes, appetite, builds enzymes that store fat, and also regulates how quickly you burn it.

And here’s the biggie: the physiological process that stores fat in your body from the fat in your bloodstream can be altered by dietary changes.

Genetic coding for fat storage

Genetic coding is very complex, but for the purposes of body composition and weight discussion, there are 5 key effects at which to look:

1. Taste genes: determine the foods you like
2. Leptin: a gene that moderates appetite
3. A gene that builds LPL, which stores fat in your cells
4. Insulin, which can stimulate calorie burning post-meal
5. Genes for muscle-cell types which have a say in whether exercise comes easy for you.

Lots more on this week’s call, but for now let’s take a quick look at #3, LPL, or lipoprotein lipase.

Lipoprotein lipase

LPL’s job is to seek out fat.  The fat in your food.  Not the carbohydrate or protein.  It is the fat in foods that provides the materials for building body fat.

You’ve probably heard me talk about this before:  A biopsy of your fat tissue can tell you what kinds of fat you have been eating:  whether it is from fish, chicken, beef, dairy, or olive oil. (See Is The Fat You Eat The Fat You’ll Wear?)  Thanks to LPL, the fat doesn’t need to go through much work at all to get deposited directly into your fat cells.

Here’s the key.  You want to give your LPL little to work with.  Your genes have told LPL to store fat.

But you can control the expression of that gene in its effect on your body composition by controlling the fats in your diet.

By choosing  foods with little or no fat in them, you can pretty much starve your fat-storing enzymes – your LPL.  This is actually restoring LPL to normal function, based on a whole foods diet that would deliver moderate stimulus to LPL activity.  You carve your figure with your fork.

Exciting science

There’s lots more where this came from, and plenty of impact we can have on our body composition, weight, and body fat levels by how we eat and the workout routines we do.   Insulin, leptin, exercise, and taste preferences all play a roll.  You can make an easy start with LPL.  And addressing the fat gene switch factor directly is one of the reasons there such rapid, wild success in my Booty Camps – we don’t leave it to chance.

What are you doing with your fat gene switch today?  Turning it on or using the dimmer?

Ref:  Turn Off The Fat Genes, Neal Barnard, M.D.