A recent European study has found that one hour of moderate to vigorous exercise a day can help teens beat the effects of a common obesity-related gene with the nickname “fatso.”
The message for adolescents is to get moving, said lead author Jonatan Ruiz of the Karolinska Institute in Sweden.

“Be active in your way,” Ruiz said. “Activities such as playing sports are just fine and enough.”

The study, released Monday, appears in the April edition of Archives of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine.
Scientists are beginning to find evidence that both lifestyle and genes can cause obesity and they are just learning how much diet and exercise can offset the inherited risk.

One gene involved with obesity, the FTO gene, packs on the pounds when it shows up in a variant form. Adults who carry two copies of the gene variant — about 1 in 6 people — weigh on average 7 pounds more than people who don’t.
In this new study, 752 teenagers were studied. They had their blood tested for the gene variant. It was found that exercising an hour or more daily made a big difference for the teens who were genetically predisposed to obesity.

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