Overweight: Am I really built this way?
Being overweight isn’t genetic destiny. Genetics explains up to half of the story; the rest is written by our daily choices — what we eat, how much we move, how long we sit. Below, we look at why “that’s just how I am” is mostly an excuse, and what you can actually do about it.
Overweight is not destiny
It’s true that today’s food isn’t the same as it was twenty years ago. Flavor enhancers, sugar substitutes, processing and trans fats affect digestion, hormones and appetite. But it doesn’t follow that obesity is inevitable.
The reason is simpler than we’d like to admit: more goes in through the mouth than the body burns. Period. The rest — which store we shop at, what’s acceptable and what isn’t — is detail around that.
Our lifestyle has become sedentary. Farm work and physical factory work have largely disappeared, replaced by office jobs and the car. Energy needs have shrunk, but portion sizes haven’t. People tend to overestimate how much they burn in a day and underestimate the calories in their food.
The thought “I’m just built this way” is convenient — it frees you from responsibility. But look around: in the same environment, in front of the same store shelves, one person makes one choice and another makes a different one. Everyone has a fork in hand.
Insulin, hunger and overweight
A familiar story: you finish lunch and two hours later you’re hungry again. There are two reasons. First, the wrong foods — fast carbohydrates, little dietary fiber, a lot of processing. Second, many people have already eaten their way into insulin resistance over the years.
How does that work? When blood sugar keeps rising quickly and high, insulin levels in the blood stay chronically elevated. Insulin’s job is to let nutrients move from the blood into the cells — but when there is always a lot of the hormone around, the cell receptors become desensitized. It’s the same phenomenon as with coffee: ten years of strong espresso, and one little cup no longer does anything.
The outcome is perverse. The blood is full of glucose and insulin, yet the cells are starving because the “doors” don’t open. Insulin does what it still knows how to do — it pushes glucose into fat cells. The body still feels an energy shortage and keeps calling for more food. It’s a vicious circle: eating doesn’t satisfy hunger, and every meal makes the resistance slightly worse. From metabolic syndrome, it’s a short step to type 2 diabetes.
The good news is that insulin resistance is reversible. Weight loss, regular physical activity and cutting back on processed carbohydrates restore cell sensitivity surprisingly quickly — the first effects show up within weeks, not years.
Avoiding overweight starts with the fork
Simple math. If you’re a 75-kilogram office worker or bus driver who sits for most of the day, your daily maintenance intake is about 2000–2200 kcal. Half a kilo of sour cream cake provides roughly 1900 kcal. How many seconds does it take to eat that?
These days, overeating is ridiculously easy. Not because food is “poisoned,” but because it’s compact, well seasoned and available at every turn. The same store shelf also offers buckwheat, chicken breast and cottage cheese — nobody forces you to grab a pack of wieners.
If obesity were purely the fault of the food industry, how would you explain people who train for bodybuilding or fitness with the same store selection and still stay in shape? The difference lies in awareness, habits and small everyday choices. Stairs instead of the elevator. Water instead of lemonade. Buckwheat instead of a wiener. None of these is a heroic act, but by the end of the month they make all the difference.
One practical habit: before a second helping, pause for a minute and ask yourself whether you’re truly hungry or just caught up in the momentum of eating. The fullness signal from the stomach reaches the brain in about ten to fifteen minutes. If you eat fast, by then you’ve already eaten twenty percent more than you need.
Genetics accounts for up to fifty percent of the risk of being overweight, but only if the environment allows it. Genes offer a tendency — the environment decides whether that tendency shows up. In Estonia, that means office work in winter, beer in summer and a car in every kind of weather. Each of these can be changed.
Frequently asked questions
Do some people just get fat because of their genes?
Genetics explains about half of the tendency to become overweight; the rest is environment and habits. A genetic predisposition alone doesn’t make anyone overweight without a matching lifestyle.
What does insulin resistance mean in plain language?
The body’s cells have become insensitive to insulin. Sugar stays in the blood, the hormone directs it into fat stores, and you feel hungry and tired even after eating.
Where do I start if I want to lose weight?
Start with the cheapest options: swap one processed meal a day for a healthier one, add a short walk after lunch, and track what you actually eat for a week. The rest will follow on its own.
Author: Janar Rückenberg
Come and train! ArtGym
