Doctor's Answers (2)
Hi there,
Interesting question. In answer to your query, here are a few facts about childhood obesity:
1. Early onset obesity is defined as occurring before the age of 10 - ie you were severely obese in childhood before turning 10.
2. Your BMI has to be 3 standard deviations above the norm.
If there were 100 people that fell within this group, approximately 7 of them would have a genetic mutation in the form of a single point genetic mutation - in other words, 7% of childhood obesity can be directly attributable to your "bad genes".
What about the other 93%? Well, the majority of obesity is still due to a combination of:
1. Too much food intake
2. Lack of physical activity
We know this as not everyone who grew up in urban or rural environments become obese, which suggests that genetics play a role as well.
Recognized forms of obesity attributable to genes include:
Finally, obesity is also a feature in a few rare and inherited syndromes such as: