Obesity: neither genetics nor social background is a very good predictor of your body weight – new research

There's still much we don't know about body weight. Christian Delbert/ Shutterstock

There’s long been a debate about whether genetics or the environment people are raised in is the biggest cause of obesity.

Obesity rates have tripled since the 1980s. This is far faster than our genetics could change, suggesting there’s an important environmental element to obesity.