Redheads and obesity

I am a redhead and have read in the past that they have a genetic propensity for obesity. Has anyone heard of this? In my family only the redheads are overweight!  Any redheads out there like to comment?  Or others?

Not all, but most of the red heads I have known throughout life were thin. I have never read that before but that doesnt mean it isnt true ofcourse. lol  Try to google it and see if u find any medical papers on it. Goodluck!

Ive been a redhead all my life and have been obese as far back as I can remember. Both parents were morbidly obese, my 2 redheaded sisters have had life long weight struggles and so has my blonde baby sister. Grandparents on my mother's side, have always been "heavy" as they put it. I don't know about my Dad's side. They passed before I was born.

I don't think that is true. My sis is redhead like me, but she is been skiny all her live, even now after 4 kids she look great. And for me I been big , huge and normal . Something that is true is that we are BEAUTIFUL .  

Well I will definately agree red heads are beautiful. I have a red headed daughter and there is not an oz of fat on her! :=) Hugs, Chris

I am also a life long overweight red head. But I think that it has to do where red-heads are usually from geographically speaking. In my case it is northern italian (well known food lovers) and irish (not always know for their low fat healthful cooking) Just a little insight... Liz

I get my hair colored every 6 weeks; I like me better as a redhead than mousey brown.  I wonder if the red hair color is responsible for getting me to 288 pounds???  Just kidding!  IDK, lots of people are over weight; I don't think it's reserved just for those with red hair...

Nadine; Too funny! I was going to say the same thing: I get my red from a bottle every 4 weeks - my grey shows through much too quickly

Innnnnteresting...  I am fascinated by genetics. Mostly only MOUSE genetics, but it does extend to cat and people genetics.  I know that in mice the closest to RED you can get is a special gene that is called yellow. (analogous to redheads... different genes in "mousedom" analogous to blondes). and those mice have a genetic propensity to obesity. Not ALL of the mice who have this gene get SUPER fat, but they are all from chunky to morbidly obese. Other mice, who have the same APPEARANCE (look like redheads) can get that appearance from a different genetic combination, and do not have any sort of problem with obesity. So if I extend what I know about mice to humans (they do use mice in research because they are highly analogous to humans).... then it would seem to me that some redheads probably have a genetic predisposition to obesity, and other genetic lines of redheads are not at all predisposed. (my father and his sister are both redheads and my aunt has had to battle her weight her whole life but my father hasn't).  One thing I think I found most interesting in my studies about mice: They took non-obese mice and overfed them until they became obese, and then they compared their body fat to those of the genetically obese mice (lower %) then they put both mice on an extreme diet. Both types got thinner but the obese mice lost far more muscle mass and did not lose very much in the way of fat while the non-obese mice became much healthier athletic mice again. It didn't seem to matter how they modified diet, or even encouraged exercise amongst the mice who were genetically predisposed to fat, they just couldn't shake the fat.  I'm guessing that some redheaded people are genetically predisposed with the human version of the mouse gene I studied, and some are not. Be my luck I got that gene withOUT the benefit of at least inheriting my aunt's Titian Red hair.

I disagree.  My obesity came from being lazy and eating the wrong foods.  I do not think hair color plays into it, just like the fact that blondes are not dumb because they are blonde.  Some people will reach for anything to blame their problems on.  If there is anything genetic going on with redheads it is the same for all people. You are either pre-disposed or not, hair color notwithstanding. I am curious, where did you read this tidbit of scientific information at?