A study published in the journal Nature points to genetic memory as one of the causes of excess weight.

Losing weight can be a difficult process. But the real problem comes later: Most people who lose weight end up gaining their normal weight back.

Several theories have attempted to explain the cause of what is known as yo-yo effect. One of them suggests that the reason could be a decrease basal metabolic rate due to low calorie content.

A new study from researchers at the Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich, Switzerland, offers a molecular explanation for this phenomenon. A study published in the journal Nature found that The body’s fat cells have retained a kind of “memory” of obesity

even after losing weight. This is due, according to study participants, to due to long-term effects of epigeneticsthat is, to changes in the functioning of genes depending on the usual lifestyle and environment.

When a person is overweight, Your fat cells may produce epigenetic markers which will remain even if you lose weight later. As a result, the normal functioning of fat cells is disrupted, and their response to changes in diet remains unchanged compared to when the person was obese.

Development of the study

To reach these conclusions, the researchers studied fat tissue samples from people who had undergone underwent surgery

lose weight. They then discovered that the participants’ fat cells they behaved the same as when they were overweighteven after two years of surgery.

The researchers also conducted mouse experimentwhere they analyzed their fat cells before and after weight loss. They first induced obesity in the mice by feeding them a high-fat diet, and then switched to a standard diet to induce weight loss. The scientists who conducted the study found that obese mice caused specific changes in their fat cells. this continued even after weight lossacting as a “memory” of the previous state.

Prevention before cure

Although researchers have not established the specific duration of this cellular “memory”, Laura Hintco-author of the study, states that these fat cells are “long-lived” and survive.”within ten years before our body replaces them with new cells.”

“This memory effect is why it is so important to avoid excess weight, as it is the easiest way to combat the yo-yo phenomenon,” he says in a statement. Ferdinand von Meyenneco-author of the study and professor of nutrition and metabolic epigenetics at ETH Zurich.