!: My Mom Was Fat - Will I Be Fat Too? (Health and Fitness)

At lunch the other day, I watched one of my students, Carrie, eat three hot dogs and two slices of pizza. I was surprised because just last week my student who is quite big in size was making comments about how she could never lose weight. She refused to recognize that she had a problem with her portions and what appeared to me to be a lack of physical activity. Instead, she told me that it wasn't the food or her constant desire for sleep that kept her heavy but rather it was her mother's fault. She said that her mother was big, and her mother's mother was big so she knew she was going to be big.

As a biology teacher, my students ask me a lot about genetics. Now I had a young overweight girl telling me that she was big because of her genes. Sure if your parents are overweight, this might slightly increase your chance of being overweight, but genes are not the only cause of obesity. Much of the weight that people carry is a result of their lifestyle choices.

Your lifestyle preferences greatly affect a person's weight. How active are you? Do you go through the drive-thru or do you park you car and go inside? Will you drive two blocks to the store instead of walking? If you are physically active every day, then you are less likely to be obese.

Our home habits are affecting our weight. Sitting at home and watching television for eight hours is not going to burn that many calories, especially when you're a television chipper, someone who always has to have chips or popcorn nearby when they're watch television. People who are tied to their desks throughout the day are also not as active as they should be.

If you don't want to be overweight, these are some of the bad habits that you have to break if you want to lose weight, and this has nothing to do with genes. You have to get active (off the bed, off the couch, and away from the desk), and you have to eat food that is low in calories and good for you. If you exercise daily, eat small portions several times a day, and drink lots of water, you won't have to wonder about how you became obese anymore. It won't be an issue because after a period of living right, you won't be overweight anymore. You'll be living right and light.