is some weight gain purely hereditary?

[Elsa.G]

ok so ive noticed that im starting to gain weight mainly around my mid section. I eat normally and i exercise, ive also been checked out by an endo since i am on HRT and a regular doctor and they said my hormones and thyroid are fine. My dad is a pretty thin guy but my mom is big and so are my 2 older sisters and brother. Is it possible that i am genetically prone to obesity? i am sad because im starting to get bigger even while keeping a relatively healthy lifestyle. Also most of my mother's side of my family and some of my dad's side are obese

[JenJen2011]

Either that or you're not eating as healthy or exercising as much as you think. I started gaining simply because I wasn't as active as I was in high school. Also, as you get older your metabolism tends to slow down. I think if you're eating healthy and are exercising regularly, you shouldn't have a problem with weight gain.

[pretty]

Well, let's put it this way. If you stopped eating, would you keep gaining weight?

Nope, of course not.

Genetics can only make it harder to lose weight. Not impossible. And they can't cause you to put on weight that you aren't eating enough to create. The familial part of weight loss is usually not in the genes, it's in the habits that parents gave to their children. And most people who gain a lot of weight have insulin resistance AKA metabolic syndrome, which develops because of eating lots of sugary and carby foods, and the way to fix it is to eat less of those foods and more whole grains, proteins, healthy fats.

Honestly I was overweight as a kid/preteen and at the time I thought, "why am I still gaining weight?" I thought something was wrong with my thyroid or I just had bad genes, but when I really got serious and lost the weight, I saw how overly simplistic and self-enabling my mindset had been.

And I'm not saying that like some health preacher, I'm just saying your body is not conspiring against you to gain weight; it is caused by habits and it can only be fixed by changing those habits.

[Shantel]

Some people have a genetic proclivity toward being chunky, that can be controlled by eating a lean diet and daily exercise. When you get on HRT you can automatically expect to gain around ten pounds if you are a genetic female, my experience tells me that the same is true for genetic males which leads to the fact that if you are a couch potato and don't watch your diet, and you are on HRT you can expect to develop a pear-like physiology. In any event even when watching the diet and exercising you will still get what women refer to as a muffin top, which is a little girly tummy from the navel down which is hormone driven. Hope this was helpful!

[Tazia of the Omineca]

It could also depend on "Set-Point" as they call it in Psychology.
It's the weight your body and brain set themselves on, you can change it, but it takes a lot of work and a lot of time.