friends, you can stop forwarding me the links to this story. i've read it.

NYT story today: Genes Take Charge, and Diets Fall by the Wayside

Yes, I am interested in genetics. Yes, my diet has recently fallen by the wayside. Yes, I plan on getting back on the diet wagon, regardless of whatever my genes say. No, probably not today.

I might be more forlorn if I thought my problem was that I had a slower metabolism, and so my body would inch upward even when I ate a reasonable number of calories. Instead, my problem is that I seem to want to eat more food than other people--and, for that matter, almost all other large mammals--do. The appetite may well have genetic origins, but it provides more hope for intervention.