--"Fat? Blame your genes, say doctors" --"Overweight? Maybe you really can blame your genes" --"Blame your genes for obesity" Headlines such as these have become a staple of science and health journalism. Are they right? Are obese people really helpless victims of their genes? Let us begin by distinguishing between "monogenic" obesity and what scientists call "common" obesity. Monogenic obesity, as the name implies, is caused by a mutation in a single gene, which is inherited in a Mendelian fashion, just as conditions such as sickle-cell anemia and cystic fibrosis are. In the case of monogenic obesity, the mutation derails the body's ability to turn off hunger signals after an individual has eaten. This type of obesity usually is characterized by insatiable hunger and severe, early-childhood-onset obesity. Monogenic obesity in turn is divided into two subcategories: syndromic and non-syndromic.

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