The Telegraph reports on a shock finding that exercise is good for fat people and it is extremely unlikely that fat people’s genes have a pre-disposition to weight gain.
The report was produced by the “Medical Research Council’s Epidemiology Unit in Cambridge”, by “analysing the genes of over 20,000 men and women aged 39 to 79, looking for 12 genetic markers known to increase body mass index (BMI) and the risk of obesity.” (note: items in quotes and copied and pasted from main article, I’m lazy).
Oddly enough, they found that “our research proves that even those who have the highest risk of obesity from their genes can improve their health by taking some form of daily physical activity.”
I’m sure this comes as no surprise to any sensible person. The body is a machine – feed it too much fuel and not burn it off, and it stores it. As lard. Eat 2,500 calories a day, burn off 2,500 calories a day – no weight gain.
I know this from personal experience: I like my food, but I’m careful what I eat and exercise regularly to keep my weight down. When training for both of my black belts, I increased my level of exercise to kickboxing 2 – 3 times a week, and jogging / running 40 minutes 2 -3 times a week. My weight went down from 12st 10lbs (way too high) to an even 12st. In other words, by exercising, I lost weight – amazing!
Now I’m not training as much, the weight is creeping back up to 12st 5.5lbs, which is no good at all. What’s worse is that I’ve been signed off work sick for two weeks with strict instructions to rest, not even jog. So, what am I going to do? Restrict my food intake, of course, and do some gentle walking.
I’m staggered that we (the rest of us who earn a living) are paying for people to have obesity operations on the NHS, when they should have some self-control and stop shoving pies down their throats. Education (or a lack of) has a huge part to play as well, with some fat people not knowing what foods are healthiest.
Incidentally, we’re now allowed to call obese people fat 
I’ll sum up this post by what my late father always used to say on the subject of people’s weight: “There were no fat people in Belsen”; he was right.
