Research
Energy balance
Moderate to vigorous physical activity attenuates the obesity risk associated with the FTO gene risk alleles, reducing the effect size by approximately 30% in adults.
If you carry the FTO risk gene, regular moderate-to-vigorous physical activity is your most powerful tool. It can reduce your genetic risk for obesity by about 30%. You do not need to be an elite athlete; consistent activity is sufficient to counteract this specific genetic predisposition.
GoodQualifiesHIGH confidence
a meta-analysis by Kilpeläinen and colleagues showed that the effect of FTO rs9939609 on BMI, waist circumference, body fat percentage and obesity risk is ~30% lower in physically active than in sedentary adults.
Why this rating
Supported by meta-analyses of multiple studies in European ancestry populations.
Source
The contribution of genetics and environment to obesity
David Albuquerque et al. · British Medical Bulletin · 2017
DOI 10.1093/bmb/ldx022
narrative_reviewCited 285×
Read the paper DOI resolved against Crossref · corpus check 2026-06-10
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