The Genetics of Getting Fit: How to Make Sure Your Lifestyle Choices Work with Your Genes – and Why That’s Important

For a long time, the popular discourse surrounding fitness has been pretty one-note: eating well and exercising results in getting fitter. Of course, there’s a lot to be said for this formula – a healthy diet and regular exercise are instrumental building blocks of a healthy lifestyle, and everyone should practice both. That said, what exactly constitutes a healthy diet – or, rather, the healthiest diet – for an individual has everything to do with their unique genetic makeup. If you want to maintain a generally healthy lifestyle, you’ll get by sticking to the general advice of “eat well and exercise.” However, seeing significant changes in your fitness and appearance can require having a deeper understanding of what your unique nutritional and athletic needs are. To learn more about how to make your lifestyle choices work with your genes, keep on reading.

How Your Genes Affect Your Fitness

As more and more research links physical fitness to genetics, it becomes increasingly clear that optimizing your fitness for the long term requires understanding your unique genetic needs. Here’s a brief overview of just some of the ways in which your genes can affect every aspect of health and fitness:

Appetite

Consistent or frequent hunger is far more than just a state of mind. FTO, also known as the hunger gene, has a variation that accounts for increased hunger and food cravings. Though some people can go hours without eating and not experience even the slightest growling stomach, others have a far more perceptible – and even disruptive – sense of hunger.

When someone has this variation of FTO, it’s important to be strategic about their nutritional plan. For example, low-carb diets are far less likely to be effective, as they’ll lead to short times between cravings and hunger symptoms. Instead, it’s important for carriers of this gene to have a diet of multiple small meals a day that are high in complex carbs in order to stay satiated.

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Endurance

Of course, athleticism can be drastically improved over time with exercise and training. That being said, there is such a thing as being a born athlete (or, at least, in being born with a gene that drastically impacts your physical endurance). ACE, the endurance gene, is found in the majority of professional athletes. That said, lacking in this gene doesn’t mean that all hopes of great athleticism and endurance are lost; it just means having to be strategic about your training.

Individuals without the heightened endurance gene need to give themselves time. If you lack this gene and aren’t seeing many improvements in your endurance, make sure that you’re giving yourself enough recovery time after workouts, are eating enough protein to help muscle recovery, and are challenging yourself by gradually increasing the distances you run and weights you use.

Muscle Size

Several genes work together to determine the extent to and ease with which your muscles can grow (and the time it takes them to do it). IL15RA, for example, determines how much your muscles can increase in size: while some people can increase muscle size drastically without significantly increasing their strength, the opposite is true for others. Potential muscle growth is another factor that’s affected by your genetic makeup: popularly known as the “Hercules gene,” MSTN is a rare genetic marker for abnormally rapid and pronounced muscle growth.

When it comes to developing your muscles, regardless of your genetic makeup, do not underestimate the power of diet. Your muscles need protein in order to repair themselves and grow after training; without enough protein, most people don’t see much growth or increased strength no matter how hard they train (and, in fact, excessively training without proper nutrition can significantly damage your muscles over time).

We could go on for a lot longer about the numerous ways in which your genetic makeup has a significant impact on fitness, athleticism, and physical appearance. With that in mind, genetic screening makes it easy for you to discover your genetic markers – and to make lifestyle choices that work with your genes, not against them. Genetic testing is a pillar of functional medicine, as it allows your physician to better identify the potential root causes of any issues you’re experiencing. To learn more about the power of functional medicine and how it differs from the conventional approach, check out our new infographic.

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