Is My Obesity a Result of Nature or Nurture?

There was a post on OH with the following question. I thought I'd post the answer I gave here too. Is your pre-surgical weight the result of Nature or Nurture. It's a combination of both. Nurture --- because my family never at healthy as I was growing up. Oh sure we had a veggie as a side dish for our meals, but the main dish was something high-fat, high-carb. Snacks were things like ice cream, popcorn or soda - never fruit or veggies. So I developed some pretty bad habits that I carried with me into adulthood. I got to the weight I was pre-op because of my own dumb self. Nature --- I believe that genetics plays a large roll in my weight gain as well. My dad's side of the family are all overweight or obese and my mom has struggled with her weight all her life (she has RNY 4 years ago). But once I got to a certain point in my weight, the PCOS took over and I couldn't lose the weight if my life depended upon it. My body wouldn't release a single solitary fat cell in the 2 years that I dieted and exercised like a mad woman before surgery. In fact, I was very afraid that because my body was so riddled with PCOS and the whole insulin resistant thing that I wouldn't lose any weight after surgery. I was fully prepared to only lose a little bit, or to be a super slow loser. Thankfully the weight is coming off and I'm happy it is. Pam