Skip to main content

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript.

  • Commentary
  • Published:

The biological predisposition to obesity: beyond the thrifty genotype scenario

This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution

Relevant articles

Open Access articles citing this article.

Access options

Rent or buy this article

Prices vary by article type

from$1.95

to$39.95

Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout

Figure 1

References

  1. Bouchard C, Tremblay A, Despres J-P, Nadeau A, Lupien PJ, Theriault G et al. The response to long-term overfeeding in identical twins. N Engl J Med 1990; 322: 1477–1482.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  2. Bouchard C, Tremblay A, Despres J-P, Theriault G, Nadeau A, Lupien PJ et al. The response to exercise with constant energy intake in identical twins. Obes Res 1994; 2: 400–410.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  3. Hainer V, Stunkard AJ, Kunesova M, Parizkova J, Stich V, Allison DB . Intrapair resemblance in very low calorie diet-induced weight loss in female obese identical twins. Int J Obes Relat Metab Disord 2000; 24: 1051–1057.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  4. Neel J . Diabetes mellitus: a ‘thrifty’ genotype rendered detrimental by ‘progress’? Am J Hum Genet 1962; 14: 353–362.

    CAS  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  5. Neel JV . The ‘thrifty genotype’ in 1998. Nut Rev 1999; 57: S2–S9.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  6. Speakman JR . Thrifty genes for obesity and the metabolic syndrome – time to call off the search? Diab Vasc Dis Res 2006; 3: 7–11.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  7. Rankinen T, Zuberi A, Chagnon YC, Weisnagel SJ, Argyropoulos G, Walts B et al. The human obesity gene map: the 2005 update. Obesity (Silver.Spring) 2006; 14: 529–644.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  8. Bouchard C, Rankinen T . Exciting advances and new opportunities. In: Clement K, Sorensen TIA (eds). Genomics of Obesity. Taylor and Francis Group, LLC: New York, in press.

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Corresponding author

Correspondence to C Bouchard.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Bouchard, C. The biological predisposition to obesity: beyond the thrifty genotype scenario. Int J Obes 31, 1337–1339 (2007). https://doi.org/10.1038/sj.ijo.0803610

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Revised:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/sj.ijo.0803610

This article is cited by

Search

Quick links