Summer is almost upon us, and for many people that is a good reason to lose those winter kilos. While one can easily lose weight by eating fewer snacks, the other has already followed different types of diets without success. Could a personalized diet based on your DNA help you lose weight faster?
Are carbohydrates the culprits? Or are those bad fats? According to the one-size-fits-all principle, anyone could lose weight if specific culprits were removed from the diet. But if you walk into a shoe store with a group of friends, you would be surprised if the salesperson suggested size 37 for everyone. Our bodies are complex and unique. Just like every pot has a lid, there is a unique way of losing weight for you.
To find out about this unique way of losing weight, you have to look at several factors. It is the combination of your DNA, lifestyle and characteristics such as weight and age that together determine what is the ideal recipe for you to lose weight. If you take these factors into account, you can create a personalized diet. A diet tailor-made for you.
The fact that a one-size-fits-all principle works less well than a personalized diet is also apparent from research. In the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, a group of scientists has set up a randomized controlled trial. Participants are randomly divided into two or more groups, after which each group has to deal with different circumstances.
Group one, the control group that had to do without a personalized diet, was compared with group two: people who did receive a diet based on their weight, activity level, waist circumference, cholesterol level and genetic information.
In this study, specific variations in the FTO gene were examined for the genetic information. Some variants of this gene have been shown to have a strong link with the development of obesity. If someone owns such a variant, we call it a risk variant. With an emphasis on risk. Always be aware that having a risk variant does not automatically mean that you actually become overweight.
The people in group two were told whether or not they had such a risk variant. And then the experiment could start: both groups did this for six months. After the time was up, everyone was measured and weighed again. What seems? Everyone was successful in losing weight. But not everyone is equally good.
Changes in weight, waist circumference and cholesterol level were often seen in the group that the people knew to carry a risk variant of the FTO gene. What could also be concluded is that risk bearers had lost more weight than non-risk bearers. In other words, a personalized diet certainly brings benefits.
Did you know that a personalized diet can even be nutrient-dense? Your genes may even say something about the role of proteins in weight loss. Take the FTO gene we talked about earlier. A risk variant of the FTO gene can show whether eating a lot of protein can help you lose weight or whether it is not that effective for you at all.
It goes even further, in addition to proteins, our genes can also say something about weight loss in relation to (saturated) fats and carbohydrates. For you, the ideal weight loss recipe may be medium in fat, higher in protein, and lower in carbohydrates. While your colleague loses weight by eating food lower in fat, average in protein and higher in carbohydrates. So you see that the diversity in people, or in genes, ensures that the one-size-fits-all does not apply to food.
Curious about how these nutrients relate in your genes and what your genes say about the risk of being overweight? In addition to the FTO gene, we as Omniyou also look at more than 30 other genes. Buy our DNA test nutrition now to gain insight into your risk of overweight and what the ideal proportions are for a personalized diet.
