High fat diet

Fat storage

There is no single metabolic response to dietary fat.
Some of us are less efficient in storing dietary fat, so they may adopt a high-fat diet, feel more satiated and lose weight. Others may lose weight by specifically increasing their unsaturated fats intake.

These traits depend on the genetic variants of the PPARG gene, a master regulator of fat synthesis and fat storage.

Check your genetic PPARG makeup and make an informed choice that's right for you.

Genomic coordinates (GRCh38): 3:12,287,849-12,471,053

PPARG is one of the well-studied “thrifty genes”. The common form of the gene is efficient in storing the excess calories we eat. The less common variant leads to a less active form of the PPARG protein, and so carriers are less efficient in storing fats.

In general, the risk for obesity increases with levels of fat intake in diet. In other words, the more fat you eat, the more chances you’ll get obese. Looking at the shaded bars in the graph below, we observe a 3-fold increase for obesity in individuals with the highest dietary fat intake. 

In contrast, variant carriers (hatched bars) do not show a significant increase in risk for obesity as fat intake levels increase. Respectively, allele carriers gain less weight than the majority of the population when calorie intake is similar. In spite that, it was found that carriers who are already obese find it harder to lose weight, and so carrying the variant can turn into a risk factor for obesity.

Studies who looked into these differences in more detail provide answers to this contradictions. It turns out that the type of fat is the factor that affect risk of obesity for carriers.

Carriers are especially prone to obesity when their Monounsaturated fat (MUSF) intake is low (see figure).

So for carriers, the gene-informed recommendation would be not to limit fat intake, but rather to increase MUSF, on the account of saturated fats. It means that over 56% of the calories from fat should be consumed  from vegetable oils, avocado, olives, nuts, fish.

For the rest of the population, high-fat diet is out of the question.


Detailed recommendations can be found in customer’s report.