Facing the Facts

According to a story posted yesterday on CNN.com, the world's heaviest woman (she's in the Guinness Book of World Records and weighs almost 700 pounds) now wants help to lose weight.  That's incredibly good news, as she is a walking time bomb at her present weight.  Her knees hurt all of the time and she is concerned that she will soon be dealing with serious health issues.  In the video interview posted, she believes genetics has played a part in her obesity because her father weighs close to 600 pounds, her mother is nearly 400 pounds and several of her siblings weigh over 300 pounds.  She stated that she's not blaming genetics, although she believes they are a factor, because she admits she has a sweet tooth.

The truth is that unless there is an underlying genetic endocrine disorder, her obesity and the obesity of her family members has nothing to do with genetics.  And no matter how many of our own family members are overweight or obese, our weight issues have nothing to do with genetics either.

According to the latest America's Health RankingsTM report, which has tracked the health of the nation for over 20 years, "the average obesity rate for the United States is 26.9 percent of the adult population, up from 26.6 percent of the population in  the 2009 Edition, 23.2 percent in the 2005 Edition, 19.6 percent in the 2000 Edition and substantially more than double the rate of 11.6 percent of the population in the 1990 Edition. In the United States, this means that more than one-in-four are obese - that is about 60 million adults with a body mass index of 30.0 or higher. If the population of the United States could return to the weight status of 1990, there would be 26 million fewer obese individuals - more than the entire population of the second most populous U.S. state, Texas."

In my own state, Michigan, the obesity rate grew from 14.1% in 1990 to 29.5% in 2009 and to 30.3% in 2010.  In Mississippi, which ranked 50th, from 1990 to 2009 the obesity rate grew from 15.0% to 33.3% and increased to 35.3% in 2010.  The fact that obesity more than doubled in twenty years in not only these two states, but many others as well, has ZERO to do with genetics and everything to do with lifestyle.  There simply could not be enough change in the genetic makeup of the U.S. population in a short twenty years to account for this growing - and I do mean growing - epidemic.

I remember being at a family gathering several years ago and sitting at a table with several of my great aunts.  They were all discussing how heavy almost everyone in the family was and wondered if it was genetics.  In the middle of the discussion, someone announced that a family member had arrived and brought a certain dessert.  This was a potluck and despite the fact that my aunts (and I) already had eaten our meal, including dessert, I immediately got up to get a piece of this newest addition to the meal and several of my aunts asked me to get a piece for them, too.  Even at the time as I was struggling with my own obesity, I found it ironic that my dear aunts seemed to think we were all genetically predisposed to obesity when the answer was clearly found in our appetites and food choices.

At the conference I attended in Des Moines last weekend, Take Shape for Life/Medifast's medical director and Take Shape for Life co-founder, Dr. Wayne Scott Andersen, stated that studies have shown that we emulate the physical, emotional and mental health of our five closest friends.  I think that's probably even more true of our family members.  If our family members are overweight, we are much more likely to be overweight, too, because our habits and lifestyle choices tend to mirror what's around us.  But it's not genetics!

Because it's not genetics, we aren't doomed to remain overweight.  People who have been overweight for much or all of their lives are getting to a healthy weight on this program, sometimes reaching a healthy weight for the very first time in their lives.  It's not that they changed or overcame their genetics - they changed their lifestyle.  What's really exciting and amazing is that some of their family members decided to join them and they lost weight, too.

One of my friends and her husband went on Take Shape for Life's 5&1 program a year ago and they have each lost just about 100 pounds.  They son and his wife started on the program a couple of months later and they have each lost over 100 pounds, which has now inspired another family member to start her own journey.  This entire family is changing their health future and laying a healthy legacy for future generations - what a truly fabulous transformation!

My own family has experienced the same thing.  I lost 126 pounds, my husband lost 50, my parents have each lost over 30 pounds (and my mom's Type 2 diabetes is now better managed), my son lost 60, my son-in-law lost 60, and my sister is now on the program and has lost over 30 pounds so far.  Several of my good friends have also lost a significant amount of weight and the circle of health continues to expand to their own family members and friends.

It's not genetics, it's our choices.  As we make healthier choices, we will not only improve our own health and get to a healthy weight, we will also be a positive influence in our own circle of influence.  The blame for our obesity isn't in our genes, it's in what's been on our plates.  How encouraging to know that we aren't trapped by a set of faulty genes, and how exciting to know that we can radically change the future of our health by continuing on a different, healthier path.  We will do so one day, one meal, and one choice at a time.  Choose wisely :-)