Research

Hormonal

Carriers of the preproghrelin Leu72Met polymorphism (specifically Met72 allele) exhibit lower body mass index, fat mass, and visceral adiposity compared to non-carriers, suggesting a protective effect against obesity.

If you have the Met72 variant, your body may naturally resist fat accumulation better than others. However, since this is a rare genetic variant, most people should focus on standard evidence-based weight management: caloric balance and physical activity. This finding highlights that individual biological responses to energy balance vary significantly.

ModerateSupportsMEDIUM confidence
The preproghrelin Met72 carrier status seems to be protective against fat accumulation and associated metabolic comorbidities.
Olavi Ukkola et al. · Obesity Research · 2002

Why this rating

The study uses large cohorts (n=3004) and multiple phenotypic measures, but the associations are specific to certain ethnicities and genotypes, and the mechanism is speculative.

Source

Role of Ghrelin Polymorphisms in Obesity Based on Three Different Studies

Olavi Ukkola et al. · Obesity Research · 2002

DOI 10.1038/oby.2002.106

cohort · n=3004Cited 184×
Read the paper
DOI resolved against Crossref · corpus check 2026-06-10

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