IN THE news recently scientists have discovered, after looking at the DNA of overweight people, that many carry DNA which genetically tends for them to put on weight.

This tells us that many people who are overweight are not gluttons by choice but have DNA that dictates the type of body mass they will have.

I have fought weight-gain all my life, lost many stones on diets but in the end I always end up a blob. I can stick to diets for months, even years, but the minute I take the brakes off and eat what I see other people eating with impunity, on go the pounds.

Most people seem to take pleasure in pointing out how fat you are. I will cut out and frame the magazine article which says DNA is a factor in your body size and frame it, and then when people poke my tummy and say, "oh haven't you put it on," I will shove it in their chiselled faces and say "you are only thin because you are made that way" and pop their smug, self-satisfied image for good.

Paddy Maxwell

Southampton