Perhaps some people have this issue with leptin (or a different hormonal problem), but that doesn’t mean that’s the only reason or even the most common reason people become obese. Just because the body reduces physical hunger in response to stored fat doesn’t necessarily mean someone will eat less. For one, people eat for reasons other than physical hunger. We eat because of emotional pain, social expectations, boredom, habit, etc. Secondly, the type of foods commonly eaten today can add more calories than natural foods (so even if you stop when you’re satisfied you may still have consumed excessive calories), and some experts think they affect our natural appetite and cravings as well.

I know whenever I’ve tried to lose weight, physical hunger has not been an issue for me at all. I can eat more than enough to physically satisfy myself and lose weight. It’s all those other reasons to eat (emotional, social, habitual) that are the problem.

Does genetic metabolism play a part in this? I’m sure it does. But I don’t have to be a prisoner to it.

I think that people are not prisoners of their own bodies. If people have enough knowledge, motivation and support from family and/or society, it is possible for everybody to live their lives in a healthy body. Claiming that one’s metabolic system is in disorder makes people think that the problem is out of their hands, and that they should give up and live their lives obese.

From personal experience I can tell that appetite and hunger can increase if I eat too much for my consumption. I don’t know the theory, but I guess it has to do with consuming simple carbohydrates which do not keep hunger away (white bread, sugar, candy, white rice) and not enough fibres, protein and good fats which would make me feel content for longer. When I started to decrease my daily calory intake and carry out a healthier diet I felt hunger for a couple of days and then got used to having less calories.

What I´m saying is that genetics can have to do with one’s hormonal functioning or metabolism, but knowledge and good routines are more important than genetics with having a healthy body (and mind). People are not machines and our lives and the form of our bodies are not determinated beforehand.

In a healthy individual, fat storage is self-limiting, because the body detects the amount of fat available in reduces appetite. Excess stored fat indicates some problem in the regulatory scheme. For instance, some people have a genetic disorder which causes their fat cells to secrete little or no leptin. Leptin is a primary signaler of stored fat, and if your brain isn’t getting a leptin signal, it thinks you’re starving and makes you hungry. These unfortunate individuals are always ravenously hungry, and generally extremely obese.

So the question is not whether eating too many calories can make you fat, but rather WHY do some people eat too many calories? The answer to this question leads to the root cause of the problem. That problem is not obesity per se, but rather the underlying metabolic issue for which obesity is a symptom.