Related: more than 20% of Russians are predisposed to obesity

More than 20% of Russians have a high risk of obesity, geneticists told Izvestia after studying mutations in two of the genes most associated with the disease. The authors did not name the regions and ethnic groups where the risk of obesity is increased, but according to other researchers, the highest prevalence of overweight is observed in the Tambov, Tver, Tula and Kaliningrad regions, as well as in Sevastopol, Tuva, Khanty-Mansi Autonomous Okrug and Chukotka. Obesity significantly increases the risk of developing cardiovascular diseases, liver and joint diseases, experts interviewed by Izvestia recalled. How the dynamics of obesity development is changing in Russia and in the world — in the material of the publication.

How many Russians are obese

The risk of gaining excess weight in people with mutations in two genes (FTO and MC4R), which are most often associated with the process of obesity, in Russians is approximately 22%. Scientists from the National Center for Genetic Research (NCGI) came to this conclusion after analyzing the data of 50.4 thousand people and extrapolating them to the whole country.

— The FTO gene, which is responsible for hunger and satiety stimuli, encodes an enzyme involved in the regulation of energy metabolism. The increased activity of this enzyme is associated with increased food intake, as well as a tendency to overeat, the scientists noted. — The gene is also associated with the risk of developing insulin resistance and type 2 diabetes.

And MC4R, they say, encodes a receptor, a key mechanism for controlling eating behavior.

"Loss or decrease of receptor function leads to increased appetite, preference for high—calorie foods, and weight gain," they added.

According to the NCGI, approximately 17.5% of Russians have two variants of the FTO gene and about 5% have two variants of the MC4R gene.

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One of the first studies on the effect of mutations in FTO on the likelihood of obesity appeared in 2007, Alexander Reznik, a geneticist at the Hadassah Medical Moscow Clinic, reminded Izvestia. After that, according to the expert, FTO became the main player in the genetics of this disease.

— In 2014, the scientific journal Nature published an article showing that FTO alone does not cause obesity, but affects some important genes associated with this pathology, — said Alexander Reznik. — But now interest in this gene has grown, as it has been proven that mutations in it really increase the risk of obesity.

At the same time, the expert stressed that the presence of a mutation in the gene does not mean that a person will necessarily develop a disease, since the environment also affects the likelihood of this.

In addition to FTO and MC4R, at least seven more genes are also associated with an increased risk of obesity, noted Anastasia Sivakova, a geneticist at NCGI.

— These include, for example, the TCF7L2 gene. It regulates fat metabolism and creates a feeling of fullness. Two more are the LEP gene and its LEPR receptor. They are responsible for the production of a hormone that plays a key role in regulating appetite and energy metabolism in the body," she said.

In total, more than 700 variants of gene mutations that affect body mass index in one way or another are now known, but they have not been sufficiently studied, the expert added.

Which ethnic groups are most susceptible to obesity

There are no large-scale studies of obesity-causing genes in Russia, Anastasia Sivakova said. Those that exist, according to her, mainly concern individual populations.

For example, scientists from the Scientific Center for Family Health and Human Reproduction studied the influence of ethnic factors on the formation of obesity in children, their article was published in 2025 in the journal Nutrition Issues.

The study involved 203 adolescents aged 11-17 from Irkutsk and Ulan-Ude. Of these, 86 were obese, and the rest were in the control group. The process of obesity development was less pronounced in adolescents of the Buryat ethnic group than in children of the Russian ethnic group, despite similar living conditions and nutrition, the authors of the study noted.

In 2019, the Yakut Medical Journal published an article on the prevalence of obesity and diabetes in various ethno-social populations of the urban and rural populations of the Far North and territories equated to it. According to her, among rural residents, obesity is more pronounced among Russians of the Far North compared to the Komi ethnic group. Komi people living in the Far North and leading a traditional lifestyle have a lower incidence of obesity compared to other populations.

In 2019, an article by scientists from the Institute of Cytology and Genetics of the Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences was published in the scientific journal BMC Medical Genomics. In their work, they came to the conclusion that inherited regions of the FTO gene in Caucasians are associated with a high risk of obesity, while in Asians, mutations in this gene transmitted from parents act the other way around — they provoke thinness.

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In 2014, an article was published in the journal Therapeutic Archive, the authors of which were representatives of the Department of Hospital Therapy No. 1 of the Chuvash State University and the Republican Endocrinological Dispensary of the republic. According to their study, obesity was more often reported in Russian women compared to Chuvash women.

Prevalence of obesity

In 2023, about 22 million obese people lived in Russia, Inna Tarmayeva, a leading researcher at the Federal Research Center for Nutrition and Biotechnology, told Izvestia. Adults, according to her, accounted for about 19% of them, children — almost 6%.

According to her, in 2024, the growth in the number of Russians with this disease continued. It is expected that the total number of adults and children with this diagnosis in the coming years may reach 23-24 million people.

— Over the past five years, the proportion of Russians who are overweight and obese has increased from 61.7% to 62.5%. And the proportion of people with normal body weight decreased from 36.3% to 35.7%. The category of overweight increased most significantly — from 40.1% to 43.9%," the expert noted.

The highest prevalence of overweight and obesity is observed in the Tambov, Tver and Tula regions. The lowest rates are in Tuva, Chuvashia and Sevastopol, according to data from the Federal Research Center for Nutrition and Biotechnology.

At the same time, other scientific organizations provide the opposite data. Thus, Andrey Skalny, an expert at the Research Institute of Functional Nutrition, said that, as of December 2024, Sevastopol became the leader in the number of overweight residents. This is followed by the Kaliningrad Region, Chukotka, Tuva and the Khanty-Mansi Autonomous Okrug.

— The reasons why there may be such a prevalence of excess weight among the population: the underdevelopment of social activities aimed at the formation of healthy lifestyle, nutritional characteristics and the absence or underdevelopment of activities aimed at the early diagnosis of metabolic disorders and the detection of diseases of the endocrine system leading to overweight and obesity, — he suggested.

The prevalence of obesity in Russia is characterized by significant regional variability, which is caused by a complex interaction of socio-economic, cultural and climatic factors, Irina Tarmayeva agreed.

According to epidemiological monitoring data, the maximum prevalence of overweight and nutritional-dependent diseases (diseases whose occurrence and course are associated with food intake) is recorded in the regions of the Central and Southern Federal Districts, while the most favorable situation is observed in the national republics of Southern Siberia and the Far East.

In regions with a predominance of traditional nutrition, a more favorable metabolic profile remains, while in regions with a high degree of urbanization and standardization of eating behavior, there is a progressive increase in the incidence of obesity, the expert emphasized.

The proportion of the world's population who is overweight or obese has doubled since 1990, according to a scientific article published in 2025 in The Lancet magazine. The authors of the study analyzed data from children and adults from 204 countries.

"The level of overweight and obesity has increased in all countries: the number of adults in the world has increased from 731 million in 1990 to 2.11 billion in 2021," the researchers said.

China topped the list in terms of the number of such people (402 million overweight or obese adults). This is followed by India (180 million) and the USA (172 million). And the largest growth was recorded in North Africa and the Middle East. Russia ranked 71st in this list, and the number of overweight people in our country was estimated at about 40 million.

By 2050, about 4 billion adults in the world will be overweight or obese, which will account for about 60% of the population at that time, the authors of the study predict.

Being overweight or obese can have a serious negative impact on health, endocrinologist and nutritionist Alexei Kalinchev reminded Izvestia.

"The presence of excess adipose tissue can lead, for example, to diseases of the cardiovascular system, mainly stroke, type 2 diabetes, diseases of the musculoskeletal system and liver," he noted. — These conditions can cause premature death or disability.

But overweight and obesity can often be prevented, the doctor reminded. According to him, to do this, you need to eat a balanced diet and maintain an adequate level of physical activity.