What If Obesity Is Nobody’s Fault?

Meet the mice that are changing the obesity conversation.

 

"How exactly obesity occurs without excess calorie intake or decreased output remains unclear. Mrap2 is expressed primarily in the brain, in a region that regulates metabolism, the process by which an organism converts food into energy for life-sustaining processes. Perhaps, says Majzoub, the obese mice metabolize calories differently, turning the same calories into fat that normal mice convert into building proteins, or use in other internal tasks. Mice, like humans, do not consciously control their metabolism.
A similar mechanism could be tied up with some instances of human obesity. The study also found that mutations in the human version of MRAP2, though rare, link to severe early-onset obesity in people. Majzoub predicts that other, yet to be found mutations in MRAP2 and additional genes linked to human obesity might help explain why some people cannot seem to maintain an average weight no matter their food intake."