Eating Without Gaining Weight Might Now Be Possible!

Researchers have identified a gene called RCANI, blocking which could allow a person to eat without getting fat.

What would it be like to hog all those donuts and burgers without going on a guilt-trip afterwards?

Soon, we’ll be able to find out. Researchers at Flinders University have identified a gene called RCANI, the inhibition of which could allow a person to eat as much as they want without getting fat.

The research, published in EMBO reports, was based on the understanding that increasing non‐shivering thermogenesis (NST), which expends calories as heat rather than storing them as fat, is a well-championed way to combat obesity and metabolic disease. However, certain innate mechanisms constrain the capacity for NST. Regulator of Calcineurin 1 (RCAN1), one such gene, suppresses two distinctly different mechanisms of non‐shivering thermogenesis (NST).

After conducting the study on mice, the researchers found:

Mice deficient for RCAN1 have an elevated metabolic rate and are resistant to diet‐induced obesity.

It is hoped that inhibiting this gene in humans could lead to similar results and help tackle obesity.

As reported in Forbes, Professor Damien Keating, who led the study explained that they looked at a variety of different diets with various timespans from eight weeks to almost six months, and observed health improvements in all cases where there was an absence of the RCAN1 gene.

We know a lot of people struggle to lose weight or even control their weight for a number of different reasons. The findings in this study could mean developing a pill which would target the function of RCAN1 and may result in weight loss.

Damien Keating

Inhibiting the gene could convert white fat to healthier brown fat in humans, eradicating many health problems in them.

"In light of our results, the drugs we are developing to target RCAN1 would burn more calories while people are resting. It means the body would store less fat without the need for a person to reduce food consumption or exercise more," Keating added.