Research

Energy balance

There is no significant interaction between FTO genetic variants and dietary intake (total energy, protein, carbohydrate, or fat) on Body Mass Index (BMI).

Having the FTO obesity gene does not mean you need a special diet. This study shows that whether you eat high or low carb, high or low fat, your BMI response to these diets is not significantly different from non-carriers. Focus on sustainable, balanced eating rather than trying to match a specific macronutrient profile to your genetics.

StrongRefutesHIGH confidence
We did not find significant interactions between the FTO variant and dietary intake of total energy, protein, carbohydrate or fat on BMI.
Qibin Qi et al. · Human Molecular Genetics · 2014

Why this rating

Large-scale meta-analysis (N=177,330) provides high power to detect interactions, which were found to be close to null.

Source

FTO genetic variants, dietary intake and body mass index: insights from 177 330 individuals

Qibin Qi et al. · Human Molecular Genetics · 2014

DOI 10.1093/hmg/ddu411

Meta-analysis · 40 studiesCited 162×
Read the paper
DOI resolved against Crossref · corpus check 2026-06-10

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