Twins

May 12, 2007 — fatfu

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I don’t know why anyone thinks weight is genetic.

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That’s crazy.

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Here’s a gallery of photos from a twin festival.

See if you can spot a trend.

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Posted in Uncategorized. 11 Comments »

11 Responses to “Twins”

  1. casey Says:
    May 12, 2007 at 8:21 am

    It always burns me when people say weight isn’t genetic at all – do these people have eyes? (Or brains?) My mother and I live nowhere near each other, eat very different diets, and have pretty different lifestyles, and lo – we’re built almost exactly the same. And, judging from pictures, we’re also built exactly her mother, her grandmother, and so on. Like, duh?

    Reply
  2. Never teh Bride Says:
    May 12, 2007 at 2:04 pm

    Uh, how can people be so silly?

    Because, you know, how our bodies process nutrients couldn’t possibly have aaaaaaanything at all to do with the genes that fashioned those bodies in the first place. Right.

    Reply
  3. fatfu Says:
    May 12, 2007 at 3:31 pm

    casey – I know it’s just plain bizarre how people look at say, fat kids with fat parents and assume “oh the parents are teaching their kids unhealthy habits.” No there can’t possibly be a genetic component to it. Crazy talk.

    Never – exactly! Everything about our bodies is genetic except our fat. That’s plausible.

    What’s blew my mind about the twin pictures from the twin festivals is not just that the twins were to the last pair virtually identical in how big they were. They were also identical in how that fat was distributed. They were exactly the same shape.

    I so wanted to put a bunch of those photos up here but then I thought maybe they wouldn’t appreciate being poster children for the heritability of fat. But they so are.

    Reply
  4. kateharding Says:
    May 13, 2007 at 12:06 pm

    This? Is awesome.

    Reply
  5. Meowzer Says:
    May 13, 2007 at 12:46 pm

    Actually, I think most people believe about a third of your weight is determined by genetics, and the rest is “cheeseburger.” Even fat people believe it, which is what kills me. Even fat people who don’t ever eat cheeseburgers seem to buy that one.

    We’re never going to get anywhere if we don’t get fat people on their own damn side. Is there enough physical evidence in the world to break the spell? We can show them pictures like this all day and all night, and they’ll still insist, “No, I know I eat too much and I’m unhealthy because of it. I have to stop.” OK, maybe a few really are hands-down, four-on-the-floor binge eaters. But really, there are no other people I can think of who insist they have to change their Bad Habits in order to be treated like decent human beings.

    Reply
  6. fatfu Says:
    May 14, 2007 at 4:59 am

    Meowzer. Great comment as usual. I love your comments on BFB too.

    Sigh. Yeah. Yeah. Sigh. Yeah. Fat-hating fatties are ten times more common than the ones who have come to terms with their bodies. The problem is they are laboring under the same misconceptions as thin people. And that makes them interpret their experience in fat-hating ways that other people see them.

    For instance, I don’t doubt that fat people are being honest when they say they have trouble controlling what they eat. Where I think most go wrong is they assume that’s abnormal. You ever heard of a thin person saying they can “eat whatever they want?” Only thin people say that, because whatever they want happens to keep them thin.

    When I wasn’t dieting I ate whatever I wanted too. Sometimes that was a lot. Sometimes very little for weeks on end. And my weight didn’t vary much up or down year to year. It’s just that that weight happened to be a lot heavier than most people.

    But when you diet, and are trying to force yourself to eat against your cravings and urges that you start feeling “out of control,” “bad,” “weak-willed,”

    Well, yeah. Eating is a basic drive. It’s primitive brain stuff. People aren’t very good at controlling it in general – just like they aren’t good at controlling breathing, drinking, and sexual urges. You can control the where and the when and the what. But the how much? Total control? Lifelong? Only when you’re dead.

    Reply
  7. Vi Says:
    May 14, 2007 at 4:37 pm

    Fraternal twins support the genetic element pretty clearly as well. My step-children are twins, one boy, one girl. They are seven, so we know EXACTLY what they eat, and they both eat the same, balanced, healthy meals. He’s the spitting image of his father, long and lean. She’s built like her bio-mom: big in all dimensions. She’s 6 inches taller and 25 pounds heavier than her classmates. There isn’t anything BUT genetics that can explain that.

    Judgemental assholes get to pick between:
    1) we’re bad parents that feed the girl extra cheeseburgers, but not the boy, or
    2) she must be doing something wrong herself (despite the fact that SHES.ONLY.SEVEN.)

    Reply
  8. Mom weighed over 300lbs too « Living ~400lbs Says:
    September 3, 2008 at 12:15 pm

    […] smoked.  I also exercise more than my mother did when she was 42, though less than my father.  Is heredity destiny?  My weight certainly mimics my mother’s.  But unlike my parents, my blood […]

    Reply
  9. Isowhey-triggered Rant « RandomQuorum Says:
    January 28, 2009 at 1:03 am

    […] Me: “Pfft there are like a million things that are reasons why I’m fat. I don’t sleep well. My work is too brain intensive. It’s genetic.” […]

    Reply
  10. Rosa Says:
    April 14, 2009 at 1:07 pm

    Vi, haven’t you heard? Treating them the same *is* wrong, because only girls have to worry about their weight.

    I remember my friend’s little sister being denied the treats all the other kids were eating, because “well, we don’t have anything to worry about with them, do we?” Because clearly if the way you feed all your kids makes one fat, it is perfectly healthy for the rest of the kids but one you should feed differently. And it won’t make her crazy at ALL.

    Reply
  11. wriggles Says:
    September 28, 2009 at 10:35 am

    Maybe fat people don’t have genes.

    Reply

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