Whether or not we are obese may well be determined whilst we're still in the womb. New research published online this month has suggested that being obese may be ‘hardwired’ in to our brains before we are even born. The study was conducted by researchers from the Yale School of Medicine.

Researchers studied a group of rats that had been bred in a way that allowed the experts to determine their susceptibility to obesity. The rats were then split in to 2 groups, both of which were fed the same high calorie western diet. They found that some of the rats put on weight and became obese, whilst other rats that ate the same diet did not put on the same amount of weight.

The results of the study were published online in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. The experts found that the rats who had put on the most weight displayed different reactions to being full. The neurons which tell the body when you have eaten enough were much more sluggish in the overweight rats that with the slimmer ones.

Tamas Horvath, chairman of the medical school’s comparative medicine section stated that, “It appears that this base wiring of the brain is a determinant of one's vulnerability to develop obesity”.

Research in to the causes and effects of obesity are becoming increasingly more common and increasingly important. The latest figures suggest that nearly a quarter of the UK is obese, and this percentage is set to rise if current trends continue. Experts believe that by 2020, a 3rd of all adults in Britain will be obese.

More research in to the causes of obesity is being called for by experts, for the more that we know about obesity, the better equipped we are to combat it. Mr Horvath believes that his research concur with the argument “that it is less about personal will that makes a different in becoming obese, and, it is more related to the connections that emerge in our brain during development”.