Genetic Testing Results

The coded messages of your DNA are billions of letters (nucleotides) long. Personalized nutrition companies only care about a few of your DNA letters and can tell you which "variant" you have at each of those locations (known as SNPs) along your DNA strands.

Genetic testing companies can le...

Although people buy genetic testing kits from companies to find out how to lose weight, the companies themselves acknowledge the limitations of the science and are careful to word their claims so that they don't outright promise weight loss.

Some researchers think that companies are overrea...

Regardless of how personalized your diet advice gets, your recommended diet will not be drastically different from what we all know to be healthy: more vegetables, more exercise, etc.

One study hoped to confirm that a specific combination of genes would determine whether people lost more...

Genetics alone cannot explain why some people are fat and others thin. Other factors include what you do and what happens to you. What can be revealed with known genes is in the single digits.

• One 2015 study of 97 gene...

Your results can be a gateway to healthier habits. The recommendations are harmless in the sense that they are recommendations that any dietician would make anyway.

We're all different. If we are all on the same weight-loss diet, there will be various outcomes. Some people will lose a lot, some will lose a little, and a few will even gain weight.

Science still can't tell us why some people lose weight easier than others.

DNA testing companies can interpret the data from the same sample differently because they use different SNPs to come to their conclusions.

Some might tell you how you will be able to lose weight, or how your diet will affect you. They can also make automatic recommendations to suit your di...