Research IDs 6 things that can stave off weight gain

You can run away from your fat genes, and you can waltz right on by a hereditary risk of gaining weight. But it’s a little less clear that mimicking funky moves in front of a video game console will protect you from a genetic vulnerability to becoming obese.

So finds a new study that identifies six ways people with unlucky bits of DNA can stave off the accumulation of excess pounds.

Years of research have revealed that inheritance — the fine print transmitted in our DNA — accounts for somewhere between 21 percent and 84 percent of the average person’s propensity to become obese. So if there is one takeaway from genetic studies of obesity, it’s this: Even if your parents saddled you with a passel of fat genes, there’s still plenty you can do to counter their influence.

But what, besides a lifetime of ascetic eating, actually works?

The new study finds that exercise does — and it gets very specific about which forms of regular exercise can ward off obesity in those with more than their fair share of the gene variants that make excessive weight gain more likely.

Combing through a trove of data maintained by Taiwan’s central Biobank, researchers found that fat-prone residents who jogged regularly were the most likely to overcome their inherited vulnerability to obesity. They also found that mountain climbing, long yoga sessions, ballroom dancing, “exercise walking” and even plain-old walking helped ward off a body-mass index that defines obesity.

The results were published in the journal PLOS Genetics.

The researchers, from National Taiwan University, collected genetic data, a wide range of health measures and self-reported exercise patterns from 18,424 Taiwanese citizens between 30 and 70 years old. Roughly 58 percent of them said they did not exercise regularly, while 42 percent reported routine exercise.

While variants of nearly 100 genes have been linked to obesity in people of European descent, those risk factors might not apply to Taiwan’s Han Chinese population. So the researchers used a panel of 50 obesity-related gene variants and divided their subjects into four groups, ranging from those least genetically prone to pack on fat to those with the greatest vulnerability.

Even after accounting for other powerful influences on body size and fat mass — including educational attainment, gender and age — a habit of exercise was powerfully protective. At every point along the continuum of vulnerability, those who said they exercised regularly had a lower BMI, waist circumference, hip circumference and proportion of body fat than did those who did not exercise.

Not so effective, the researchers found, were swimming, bicycling and stretching, as well as tai chi, qigong and “Dance Dance Revolution.”