Walking may lessen the influence of genes on obesity by half

Watching too much TV can worsen your genetic tendency towards obesity, but you can cut the effect in half by walking briskly for an hour a day, researchers report at the American Heart Association’s Epidemiology and Prevention/Nutrition, Physical Activity and Metabolism meeting this week. “In our study, a brisk one-hour daily walk reduced the genetic influence towards obesity, measured by differences in BMI by half. On the other hand, a sedentary lifestyle marked by watching television four hours a day increased the genetic influence by 50 percent,” said Qibin Qi, the study’s author. The researchers calculated a genetic predisposition score based on 32 established BMI-predisposing genetic variants.