Weight Gain Genes

It is found that overeating is related to the same gene involved in alcoholism and drug addiction. People who carried a certain variant of the gene and who used food to motivate themselves were the highest at risk for eating too many snacks when compared to people who had only one or neither of these traits. People with this gene variant could have a lack in reward-signaling in the brain and have to participate in more of the behavior to get as much pleasure as people with normal signaling. Exercising is something more positive that can release the same reward chemicals in the brain.

Artificial Sweeteners Could Make You Gain Weight

It is found that artificial sweeteners could make a person gain weight. The sweeteners confuse the body and the body is already programmed to associate sweet tastes with calories consumed. When we break that connection by eating or drinking something with little or no calories, our bodies become confused and want more food. Also, sugar substitutes don’t increase metabolism so fewer calories are burned. A larger appetite combined with a slower metabolism can cause a lot of weight gain.

Study Says Unpopular Girls Tend to Gain More Weight

It is found that unpopular girls and girls that are low on the social ladder are more likely to gain weight during their adolescent years. Harvard University researchers did a study on 4,500 junior high and high school girls and found that the girls who felt like they weren’t well liked gained more weight than the more popular girls. The unpopular girls were 70 percent more likely to gain more than 11 excess pounds over a two year period.